22 Jun
2011
22 Jun
'11
10:55 a.m.
From: dwight elvey
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 6:33 AM
At least LISP is consistant, everything is postfixed.
I just have
a problem debugging LISP because I can't follow the order of
operation as easily ( I suspose one does get used to it ).
"post" = "after". Lisp is *pre*fixed, i. e., it uses the original
Polish notation, rather than the reverse Polish notation foisted on
us by a calculator manufacturer.[1]
The order of evaluation of a Lisp expression is depth-first, both for
the operator position and for all arguments. Any decent editor will
format the code so that the flow is obvious; for that matter, Lisp has
had pretty-printer functions since the 1960s to take care of that for
you. Lisp is easy to debug.
[1] Yes, I know, RPN came into use before HP started making calculators.
Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Server Engineer
Vulcan, Inc.
505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900
Seattle, WA 98104
mailto:RichA at vulcan.com
mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org
http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/