Gregory wrote: >In every single language using infix notation (except MUMPS) that I'm >familiar with 2 + 3 * 4 = 16, and it is a longstanding convention in >mathematics that 2 + 3 * 4 is 2 + (3 * 4) not (2 + 3) * 4. > >It's not that I can't live with strict left to right evaluation, it's >just that it's annoying...really annoying. It's as if someone decided >that they would violate a well established convention just for <insert >your favorite expletive> of it.
The convention for precedence among operators was NOT well established among different programming languages until long after I started using MUMPS which again was long after it was decided for MUMPS. When I was a graduate student studying different programming languages, some used strict right-to-left precedence and among languages that offered a per operator precedence scheme and a relatively large set of operators, there were many variations on precedence that I found impossible to follow without a reference manual or excessive use of parentheses. In contrast, MUMPS' left-to-right precedence offered refreshing simplicity. This is a dead issue, or should be since it was decided for MUMPS decades ago. --------------------------------------- Jim Self Systems Architect, Lead Developer VMTH Computer Services, UC Davis (http://www.vmth.ucdavis.edu/us/jaself) ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is Sponsored by the Better Software Conference & EXPO September 19-22, 2005 * San Francisco, CA * Development Lifecycle Practices Agile & Plan-Driven Development * Managing Projects & Teams * Testing & QA Security * Process Improvement & Measurement * http://www.sqe.com/bsce5sf _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
