Is RPN still relevant?

[carey]

(12-18-2023 07:56 AM)carey Wrote:  However calculations aren't done by hand anymore

(12-18-2023 09:23 AM)Garth Wilson Wrote:  I guess you live in a world different from mine.

If you are claiming to do most calculations with paper and pencil (which is obviously what I meant by "calculations aren't done by hand anymore" as I spoke of RPN mimicking hand calculations (and a handheld calculator is a machine), then yes, I live in a different world from yours!

(12-18-2023 07:56 AM)carey Wrote:  so there's no need to mimic hand calculations and RPN's intuitiveness with numeric operations is offset by RPN's torturousness when working with equations without numbers.

(12-18-2023 09:23 AM)Garth Wilson Wrote:  Only a small part of programming is math and equations though.

If we're talking about RPN programming on a calculator (this thread?), and your experience is that only a small part of that programming is math and equations, then you're living in a different world than mine :)

(12-18-2023 07:56 AM)carey Wrote:  (imagine writing words in a sentence backwards).

(12-18-2023 09:23 AM)Garth Wilson Wrote:  It is my understanding that some spoken languages are indeed RPN, like that where we would say "put on shoes," in Korean it comes out more like "shoes, install."

The fact that it was necessary to select a language (Korean) which most English-speakers find difficult to learn for an example of backwards wording seems only to prove my point. The comparison of writing equations backwards to backwards wording was only an analogy. More relevant, modern Korean is written left to right like English, yet you will not find Koreans writing equations backwards.

The bottom line is RPN is fun, often useful and a great brain exercise, but its mythical status, justifiable in the past when there was little competition, is a chimera today.