-10^2

[miscdas at boxfrog.com]

David Vaughan writes: 

> 
> 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
> 
=================== 

All fine and dandy, but I think the relevance was directed to usage in Rev 
or MC, not personal use. 

RPN is a beautiful thing. It kept many people from trying to borrow my HP 
calculator. I also like its usage when programming in Forth. 

miscdas