For this esoteric message, is left-to-right really easier for all people, e.g., Israelis or anyone else who native language is to read right to left?
M was developed in the US so it is natural that that language adopted a Western perspective. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Holloway, Thomas (EDS)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net> Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2005 4:45 PM Subject: RE: [Hardhats-members] MUMPS features Maybe it's a case of reductio ad absurdum but if I have a long arithmetic list like: 5+9+33+87-92+28+77*4-15-61+88+342 why in the world would I go into the middle to multiply 4*77 before starting on the rest of the math? That makes no sense at all. Multiplication trumps addition? Are we playing bridge here? And yes, having studied other languages I'm aware of their weird operator precedence and, much like Jim, can't remember which does what. Left to right, what could be simpler? Just like reading. Can you imagine reading a line of code where For and Do took precedence over If and Write? I vote left-to-right (as if this were a decision that had to be made.) Thom H. ------------------------------------------------------- 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
