Subject: Re: zerop From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 02:20:15 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3212878813839675@naggum.net> * Kent M Pitman | I personally find it abhorrent to see (= 0 x); I prefer (= x 0). Since I frequently write (<= 0 foo <limit>), 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