Re: Operator precedence

On 2024-05-25, Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> wrote:

(Mind my remark that mathematicians and computer scientists were
involved in the Algol 68 definition, and that this topic had been
discussed there, and despite the old mathematical convention they
decided to consistently streamline the definition. Frank Pagan's
Algol 68 book, for example says that _every_ monadic operator has
higher precedence than any dyadic operator. And that makes sense;
also in my opinion. I consider Algol 68 also a landmark due to its
extraordinary formal definition, that's why I emphasize it here as
an outstanding paragon.)

What they are effectively saying is that the dyadic power operator A**B
(or A^B or whatever it is) bears no syntactic relation to the 2D notation
involving a superscript. I.e. it is a completely different syntactic
interface to the same abstract operation. As such, it can have its own
precedence rules, not hinged to the superscript power notation.

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