Contributed Articles: Operators Considered Harmful

ABSTRACT

The distinction between operators and functions is shown to be arbitrary and complicated. An unification of those two object classes is proposed. Consequences for syntax and representation of functions are considered. Arrays of functions are shown to be a natural consequence of the unification.The paper is based on the terminology used in "Rationalized APL" [Iverson 83a]. Knowledge of this work is assumed. F,G,H denote functions, A,α,ω arrays. Index origin is 1 in the refined language and throughout this paper.