From ... Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!134.222.94.5!npeer.kpnqwest.net!nreader1.kpnqwest.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Subject: Re: zerop References: Mail-Copies-To: never From: Erik Naggum Message-ID: <3212878813839675@naggum.net> Organization: Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway Lines: 20 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/21.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 02:20:15 GMT X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@Norway.EU.net X-Trace: nreader1.kpnqwest.net 1003890015 193.90.206.219 (Wed, 24 Oct 2001 04:20:15 MET DST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 04:20:15 MET DST Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.lisp:18489 * Kent M Pitman | I personally find it abhorrent to see (= 0 x); I prefer (= x 0). Since I frequently write (<= 0 foo ), and read this as a test whether the arguments are increasing non-monotonically, instead of the more informal "less than or equal", which works only for two arguments in my view, just like (+ a b c) as which I read "sum of" rather than "plus", I find it more convenient to start the argument list with the constant. Also, in (< 4 x), the symbol < has the visual appeal that the arguments should have increasing values from left to right for the expression to be true, and likewise for > for decreasing values. Using infix syntax, I would write x > 4, but I would also read it backwards. /// -- Norway is now run by a priest from the fundamentalist Christian People's Party, the fifth largest party representing one eighth of the electorate. -- The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers. -- Richard Hamming