Ask HN: effects of prefix notation on coding / thinking

silentbicycle · on Sept 15, 2008

Some languages allow an unambiguous mix of infix and prefix.

  OCaml & Haskell:   5 + 7    or   (+) 5 7

Most non-alphanumeric operators are infix unless in parens.

  Haskell: map (\ x -> x + 1) [1, 2, 3]   
           or (\ x -> x + 1) `map` [1, 2, 3]

Two-argument, alphanumerically named functions can be made infix with `backticks`.

parenthesis · on Sept 14, 2008

Of course, infix is (always/usually?) only for some operators (e.g. arithmetic ones), with everything else prefix, just usually written foo(x, y) instead of (foo x y), but prefix nonetheless.

eru · on Sept 14, 2008

Have you tried coding in postfix aka Forth, yet?

bOR_ · on Sept 14, 2008

Learning one language at a time =). Haven't tried postfix / Forth yet.. so I don't know how that would feel.

silentbicycle · on Sept 15, 2008

Factor (http://factorcode.org/) is another postfix / stack-based language that may be worth a look.

bOR_ · on Sept 17, 2008

Heard of it. But I was looking not for different languages to learn, but some kind of analysis on what the effect is on the way programmers think because of using an infix / prefix or postfix language.

For example: I remember I heard somewhere that japanese kids are better in mental arithmetic based on the way the japanese counting system works (no clue if that's true, heard it ages ago). So it is the analysis of the effects I am after.