[comp.lang.forth] postfix notation

stevens@vms.macc.wisc.edu (04/07/88)

Somebody was worried about children not liking forth because the
notation is different than they learned in school.  My only experience
is with HP calculators.  My daughter had never seen anything but
infix notation but she never questioned the postfix notation used
by my HP-21.  I showed her once how it worked ( she was about 10 years
old ) and away she went.  
I know that for me it seems even more natural;  an operation ( like + )
occurs when I push the '+' button rather than at some later time that
I otherwise have to keep track of.

klp@ohguc.UUCP (K.L. Pauba [Kevin]) (04/08/88)

Even though we are taught to write equations infix, most people actually
calculate using postfix -- we place the numbers on a stack and add them up:

		125
		 50
	      +
		===
		175