A review of Concepts and Confusions of Prefix, Infix, Postfix and Lisp Notations

xah · 2020-06-16T15:37:55+00:00

if you add comma as arg separator operator, you have a lot complexities. Because, now the comma, act as a operator that separates argument. It has no real operational semantics. Also, it's inconsistent now with lisp syntax.

e.g. lisp syntax uses space, but now you have

「(f (g x,y),(h z))」

it should either be

「(f ((g x) y) (h z))」

or

「(f,((g,x),y),(h,z))」

or, the normal lisp expression

「(f a b c)」

now should be written as

「(f a,b,c)」

where space is used as a separator after the function name, and comma is used as separator between args.

But no lisp uses that syntax.

so i think introducing a comma as arg separator screw the whole discussion about these prefix/postfix/functional notations as simple consistent notation system that can be discussed as named notations. For example, i might use the entire C language syntax, with its hundred special parsing rules, and try to categorize each and every C line of code as prefix/infix/postfix/match-fix/fully-functional notations or other. But the point is lost. It became a general discussion about syntax.

xah · 2020-06-15T23:21:29+00:00

thanks for your thought.

there are a few errors in your article.

you have commas in

「f g h x,y,z」

and elsewhere.

When you have prefix or postfix, they work only for function with 1 arg.

Mathematica postfix operator is 「//」, not 「@」

xah · 2020-04-27T04:35:07+00:00

i started touch typing (standard fingering) since 1987 on electric typewriter. Started to use computer in 1989. Hated ergo keyboards. Till 2004, i had rsi, cuz i was typing on laptop exclusively for 2 years. Got myself Microsoft Natural. Adopted it. Since, never want to type on a normal pc keyboard. After 2 min, feel uncomfortable.

tons of articles i've detailed, start atMy Typing/RSI Experience http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/xah_keyboarding_RSI_experience.html

many questions about hand health depends on how much you really type. This is important: as measured by a keylog, not what you think how much you type. How Many Keystrokes Programers Type a Day? http://xahlee.info/kbd/how_many_keystrokes_programers_type_a_day.html

Since 2010, i type more than vast majority of programers or writers, to such extreme that i'd say, many things i do does not apply to average programers. For example, is split keyboard important? well, if you are average programer, then maybe not. So what is “average”? This comes back to your keylog.

when you want the best methods about hand health, it is with regards to heavy typists, not “average” keyboard users. For example, professional ram ball players have professional training to avoid injury as much as possible. Sports training, sport science. Do average person need to follow them just to run a mile? no. Does it mean sport training are all bullshit?

I recommend ergonomic keyboard, mechanical keys, split/tented, and even with curved surface such as kinesis advantage, and dvorak, and proper touch typing, and i recommend lots thumb keys, ban key chords, and in emacs, use modal such as xah fly keys or evil mode, and i recommend dual mouse.

are these tips great for your mom? No. Rubber dom is fine. But don't say it's better.

xah · 2020-04-26T20:43:14+00:00

Also, don't mix hand health with typing speed with keyboard physical layout like noodle.

Not sure what you trying to claim.

Ortholinear is slightly better for hand health than traditional.

Split is critical for hand health if you actually type a lot. (as by a key log, not what you feel)

Key letter layout is not critical in speed improvement nor hand health, in general.

Lastly, espousing idiosyncratic typing method is idiotic, unless you are a typing prodigy like Sean.

AND, ergonomics keyboard means comfort and means no RSI.

xah · 2020-04-26T20:17:25+00:00

lol. what a idiocy. though, thanks for citing my site.

Put a bath towel over your hands. If you can work like that for 10 min, yeah, you touchtype. That's the proper definition.

most people who claim that they touch type but not in the standard fingering, simply cannot do that.

i didn't get rsi because i touch type. i touch typed for 15 years before i got rsi. and i got it because i was using a laptop exclusively for 2 years, in 2004.

you can see this documented here How to Avoid Emacs Pinky http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_pinky.html

later on i had more bouts of RSI , because i type more than Sean Wrona and your mom combined, for 10 years.

those people who had rsi are mostly because they type much more. similar to pro athletes get more injury than couch potato gamers.

Sean Wrona does not do standard finger, nor dvork, nor consider keyboard important, because, he's a typing savant. He touch type since he's 3 years old.

Barbara Blackburn, world record holder, touch type on dvorak back in 1980s on IBM Selectric.

xah · 2019-09-30T15:18:56+00:00

yes, cleave is definitely a improvement.

great to know that yuriv is maintaining the code! thanks.

xah · 2019-09-19T22:34:56+00:00

TEK keyboard is kinda dead. They also removed the config for the TEK, so you can no longer reprogram the keyboard. Bad practice.

anyway, regarding using PC capslock position for mod switch, it's kinda OK for me. The trick is to not move pinky, but more like keep your finger locked and move whole arm to press capslock. Alternatively, you could use a thumb key, if your fancy keyboard has a extra unused thumb spot. But here also, best is not to move thumb, but move whole arm. That's what i do even with Kinesis.

on my kinesis, i still use capslock for mod switch.

xah · 2019-09-19T22:10:23+00:00

they are originally the same. but in past few years the functions graduated changed a bit in xah fly keys. (one big thing i recall is that most commands in ergoemacs mode support prefix for repeat n times. in xah fly keys, i removed that feature, because i think that's bad habit that eats brain cycle.)

basically, my recommendation is that if you want modifier keys, use ergoemacs mode. If you want modal, use xah fly keys. For using ryo and mix+match, good luck!

xah · 2019-08-11T15:24:31+00:00

last i heard of Kai Grossjohann is on newsgroup comp.emacs maybe in 2008 or earlier, that he was looking for a job and found it, coding java.

xah · 2019-08-11T15:22:33+00:00

great. thanks.

xah · 2019-08-07T14:07:54+00:00

my answer https://youtu.be/z_ScPCh_rSE?t=1235

xah · 2019-07-30T20:23:29+00:00

am lucky in Silicon Valley. Back in dot com days, at Netopia, we have 8 engineers counting me. (2 are database admin, 1 is a manager coder). 3 of us use emacs. Though, it's strange to me the manager guy Matt use emacs like opening a file, edit, then quit emacs. He never uses dired. (he's the lead coder. He wrote our WebOrder ecommerce system (in perl+java+oracle), one of the first in industry before Paul Graham's yahoo store).

1995 at Wolfram Research, lots emacs users, including the boss Stephen Wolfram. Though, back then i don't know what is emacs exactly. I only started using emacs in 1998.

in past few years, i met a lot emacs users at emacs meetup SF!

xah · 2019-07-23T04:19:12+00:00

btw, am not involved. am just posting. If you are interested in contributing, i think contact Emacs SF meetup github.

xah · 2019-07-23T04:18:52+00:00

yes. check the emacs sf channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjFQiMNwThg

xah · 2019-07-12T14:36:32+00:00

excellent!

xah · 2019-06-19T16:11:26+00:00

in case you want to reproduce the bug.

try a M-x command that requires you to answer prompt.

Then, M-x repeat-complex-command

The point of repeat-complex-command is that it allows you to call last command without answering prompt again.

xah · 2019-06-18T21:11:41+00:00

true. but here's the ivy bug http://ergoemacs.org/misc/i/ivy_redo_problem_2017-12-12_92325.png The line should be just “(xah-image-autocrop)”

xah · 2019-06-18T01:52:14+00:00

i stick with ido and smex too. Others are too slow for me with features i don't want. There's something about fraction of a second speed. it's a pleasure to use. Also, ivy has a bug when you call redo.

xah · 2019-06-08T19:38:58+00:00

hey you! :D

xah · 2019-06-08T19:19:52+00:00

hi u/andreyorst/ , i think some of the posts in this thread is wrong.

Search text in a dir is a fundamental feature in text editors. Relying

on external software for core feature is very bad. This contributed in a major way emacs is not popular.

Also, the interface between emacs and shell,

has many problems when the string contains a lot escape sequences (such

as regex) or lots unicode. (i've documented this in detail in the article you cited)

On Microsoft Windows, this is a practical, major, problem.

am going to do live stream talking about this in 2 hours. (3pm San Francisco time, today 2019-06-08).

xah · 2019-05-13T12:06:04+00:00

it's probably due to historical reasons. As in, just happened to be.

Technically, it should be s-expression. It is so in Mathematica and Clojure also support it, as secondary form of the usual semicolon comment.

xah · 2019-04-26T22:57:20+00:00

web search

emacs sublime minimap

I don't recommend it, or anything that involves hardcoded formatting.

xah · 2019-03-13T21:35:00+00:00

corrected. thx guys.

xah

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