On 3/04/21 5:07 pm, John wrote:
This fails when it's like b*((x*2^(3-a))-(7*c)), since you now have to look back and forth and get a handle on what each of the terms is. b x 2 3 a - ** * 7 c * - * is pretty much a set of steps (3 - a, raise 2 to that, multiply x by that, multiply 7 by c and subtract from the former results, multiply all that by b).
Seems to me you're looking back and forth just as much here. You're starting somewhere in the middle (how did you know to start there?) then looking left for the 2 and right for the **, then left for the x and right for the *, etc. etc. etc. The fact that you have to mentally follow a set of steps is a *disadvantage* of RPN for me. I can look at b*((x*2^(3-a))-(7*c)) and just *see* various things about it. For example, I can see that 2 is raised to the power 3-a. I can see that b is multiplying everything else. None of those things are obvious at a glance to me from the RPN. Sure, I can figure it all out, but it takes work, and I'm not confident that I haven't made a mistake. Which means I'd much rather audit an infix expression than an RPN one. -- Greg _______________________________________________ Python-ideas mailing list -- python-ideas@python.org To unsubscribe send an email to python-ideas-le...@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/python-ideas.python.org/ Message archived at https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-ideas@python.org/message/SHKTCOYDYDSXFKDHXWXQ647UKA5VFK4O/ Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
