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From: lgm@polaris.ih.att.com (Lawrence G. Mayka)
Subject: Re: Prefix vs. Infix?
In-Reply-To: mbk@inls1.ucsd.edu's message of 14 Oct 1994 06:40:54 GMT
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Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 13:16:08 GMT
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In article <37l95m$ja5@network.ucsd.edu> mbk@inls1.ucsd.edu (Matt Kennel) writes:

   I have the vague suspicion that there could be a somewhat deep reason
   {beyond just "Euler started us out this way"} why humans like to see
   mathematics with infix related to the kinds of natural languages that we are
   neurally wired up to do.

- Please don't make conclusions about neural wiring from the bizarre
historical accidents that gave rise to the =English= language.
Heavens, if someone's neurons are really wired for English I might
want to suggest a lobotomy!

- "Natural" languages--as if one human artifice is so much more
"natural" than another--form and evolve under the influence of a
variety of factors, very few of which are actually relevant to
software production.  One might just as easily argue that since all
human civilizations eventually decline and collapse, we should
=deliberately= design our software systems to do the same.
--
        Lawrence G. Mayka
        AT&T Bell Laboratories
        lgm@ieain.att.com

Standard disclaimer.
