RE: Functional Paradigm popularity and Maths (Was: XML as a transitionto s-expr)

[Avi Bryant <address@hidden>]

On Thu, 20 Dec 2001, Tony Kimball wrote:

> :     add 2 3
> :     2 add 3
> :     3 add 2
> :     2 3 add
> :
> : are all sensibly parsable constructs as a human being.
>
> In English imperative sentences, the verb comes first.

Actually, unless the subject is obvious from context, it comes first (or
sometimes last).  As in "Tony, pass me the salt" (Tony pass: me the:
#salt).  The only argument I can see is that "self" should be
omitted, since it can be taken as implied - both SmallScript and Self
allow this.

But I don't think David was trying to argue that infix was
necessarily more "natural" than prefix, since that's highly
(human) language dependent anyway.  I would rather make the argument that
message passing is perhaps a more natural model than function application,
however it's expressed.