On Tue, 25 Sep 2007, Brian Hulley wrote:
Jonathan Cast wrote:
Of course, this is all a consequence of the well-known failure of natural language: verbs come before their objects. It is thus natural to write f(x), when in fact it is the object that should come first, not the function. Switching to a (natural) language where (finite) verbs come at the end of sentences, where they belong, should fix this issue in time. Doing the same in a functional language would be ideal as well, but might limit its use among those who speak inferior natural languages.
Thanks, I must look into using postfix notation. It's used in Forth and Postscript and I seem to dimly recall that there is a natural language somewhere that also uses it but I can't remember which one.
Reverse Polish! Ah no, it's only the Reverse Polish Notation which is in this style. ;-) Yes, PostScript is nice, does also allow higher order functions and partial application.