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dj-wonk | 6 years ago

No.

RPN and postfix notation refer to the same core idea. From Wikipedia: "Reverse Polish notation (RPN), also known as Polish postfix notation or simply postfix notation, is a mathematical notation in which operators follow their operands, in contrast to Polish notation (PN), in which operators precede their operands."

Can you please explain why you wrote "Reverse polish notation is an entirely different usage"? With a citation, preferably.

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lucideer|6 years ago

Reverse polish notation is a term used in mathematical notation for an a alternative operator syntax to the more common "infix" notation.

The article describes affixing the word "await" to methods in a programming language as a "postfix" and explicitly contrasts it with a "prefix", which is a linguistic term for affixing words, commonly contrasted with the term "suffix".

dj-wonk|6 years ago

I don't see any reference nor any clear argument supporting your claim that RPN and postfix notation are different.

Again, RPN and postfix notation mean the same thing.

Here are some more references that show how these terms are commonly used:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infix_notation

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_notation

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postfix_notation (which redirects to a page on RPN, which is very strong evidence that your claim is incorrect)

Ok, onto the next thing. You wrote:

> The article describes affixing the word "await" to methods in a programming language as a "postfix" and explicitly contrasts it with a "prefix", which is a linguistic term for affixing words, commonly contrasted with the term "suffix".

I'm not getting your point. I don't think you are summarizing the language accurately. Perhaps you could quote the section of the article at length.

Here is one quote from the article: "The lang team proposes to add the await operator to Rust using this syntax: `expression.await` This is what’s called the “dot await” syntax: a postfix operator formed by the combination of a period and the await keyword. We will not include any other syntax for the await operator."

Here is another quote: "Our previous summary of the discussion focused most of our attention on the prefix vs postfix question. In resolving this question, there was a strong majority in the language team that preferred postfix syntax. To be concrete: I am the only member of the language team that prefers a prefix syntax. The primary argument in favor of postfix was its better composability with methods and the ? operator."

These usages of "prefix" and "postfix" are consistent and idiomatic.

I hope this clears it up.