On 9 December 2012 08:41, Bo Jacoby <bojac...@yahoo.dk> wrote: > Well, 'cm' is a product, c*m, where c=.0.01 and m is a meter.
All my life I have been under the impression that 'cm' is an abbreviation for 'centimeter', used to denote the unit of length, and not an arithmetic expression. And that, similarly, 'cm²' is a denotation for a unit derived from 'cm', and does not include operations. > The J convention is that expressions are evaluated from right to left: > a*b+c means a*(b+c). How is J related to your treatment of 'cm' and 'cm²', and how does J convention lead to 'omitting parentheses'? > It is better because is is simpler and more general. How exactly? I agree that if you have many operations, not having precedences between them is a plus. But in school algebra there are no many operations, so the precedences hardly present a problem. And, let us not forget that in J the evaluation does not occur in strictly one direction. As for whether right-to-left is better than left-to-right, I am not sure. I see advantages in both systems. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
