[OT] -10^2

[David Vaughan]

On Friday, May 23, 2003, at 06:59 Australia/Sydney, "Gary Rathbone" 
<gary.rathbone at btclick.com> wrote:
>
>> I read -10^2 as (-10)^2 not -(10^2)
>
> Victor Eijkhout replied :
>> You can read all you want. There are established conventions and it's
>> silly to ignore those.
>
> And that's where the issues lie. Conventions and Standards are fine 
> until
> you take them outside of the environment that subscribe to them.
>
> As Richard Gaskin states "The interpretation is in the eye of the 
> beholder
> on paper. In Rev, interpretation is in the "eye" of the engine."
>
Well, I think I have managed to wait until about the last post on the 
topic and now I will let it out, noting that  I spell in english so I 
am can hardly complain about the idiosyncrasies of anything else.

Using Transcript, I read its conventions. However, in my personal 
arithmetic world I suffer not the slightest confusion over this 
problem. I use Reverse Lukasiewicz Notation (RPN to you), have done for 
thirty years, and know the difference between:
-10  2  ^
and
10  2  ^  -
with not a parenthesis in sight, on site, or cited to incite me.

:-)
David

>
> Regards
>
> Gary Rathbone BSc MBCS