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Re: Order of operations (fwd)
Posted:
May 15, 1995 9:14 AM
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On Sun, 14 May 1995, Tad Watanabe wrote:
>Whether or not we go straight left to right or use the rule that we have
>is not going to make any significant diffenrece in matheamtics itself,
>IMHO. I think one is probably much more simpler and efficient than the
>other, but I don't see any reason why we cannot go left to right
>[although I agree with Harvey Becker that we probably need the agreement
>on doing inside parenthses first.
The computer language APL parses expressions from right to left and I think
(but am not sure) that one of the benefits is no parentheses. Reverse
Polish notation also eliminates parentheses. The problem with teaching any
of these to students instead of the standard way is, how will they
communicate with the rest of the world?
Amos Newcombe | Voice (914) 339-0582 | The world's biggest fool
CyberMath | Fax (914) 331-2697 | can say the sun is shining,
Manor Lake #2 | Email: amos@cerf.net, | but that doesn't make it
Kingston NY 12401 | 76324.3313@compuserve.com | dark out. -- Robert Pirsig
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