Order of precedence

Hans-Martin Mosner hmm at heeg.de
Fri Jan 29 09:07:51 UTC 1999


glenn wrote:
> 
> I think you're right--to do mathematical notation, you'd need mathematical
> precedence and standard function notation. In addition, you'd need to use
> conforming operators not #*, exponents denoted by graphic position not with
> bogus operators such as #^, elided operators for multiplication, horizontal
> lines for division, tall integrals, etc. etc. etc. That would be cool.
> 
Since Squeak now has mechanisms for enhanced source code storage, what
about a kind of text emphasis that says "render this expression in
standard math notation"?

Smalltalk would see
	(c at: i) at: j put: ((a at: i) at: j) * ((b at: j) at: i)
but the user would see (properly rendered, of course)

	c   := a   b
	 ij     ij  ji

and this expression could be manipulated graphically. At least in
Morphic, this would be feasible. The MVC browser would just show the
Smalltalk code, perhaps with a color indication or so to give the user a
hint that this is meant as a mathematical formula.

Hans-Martin





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