2003-03-06 00:08:12, i18n <i18n@...> wrote

> %50 is either "leet-speek", or MIT grads or wannabees with

more than a bit of insight...

I had attributed it to the use of [%] as a character in URLs to
signify that the following two digits were to be taken as a code
point; for instance, if you want to include a space code in a[n]
URL, you represent it as %20 , iirc.

My guess is that most Slashdotters read many more URLs than
"real" text, and think that that's typical usage in other
situations.

> reverse polish notation skills

I was an electronic tech., ca 1963, on the Friden EC-130, the
world's first RPN machine. Had a stack almost identical to most
earlier HP machines. I wrote about it in considerable tech.
detail. However, this is almost off-topic.

To bring it more on-topic, I could describe ways to write simple
math. expressions.

The Polish mathematician Jan (?) Łukasiewicz invented a
parentheses-free math. notation. For what we would write as
"2 + 3", he would write "+ 2, 3", requiring some sort of
delimiter between the first and second numbers to be added.
Afaik, he did not use a comma, though.

It was probably Robert Ragen, the chief engineer on the EC-130
who decided to use "Reverse Polish Notation"; the name
"Łukasiewicz " is utterly hopeless to Americans who are unable to
cope with "Murray" and "Swain", hence "Polish".

"Reverse" implies that the two numbers are entered first, then
the operator; the sequence becomes 2 [Enter key] 3 + .

For a modest amount of re-thinking, RPN and its accompanying
stack (especially if it's visible) (definitely off-topic)
have many advantages. Unfortunately, unfamiliarity and force of
habit have been barriers to wider adoption.

Nicholas Bodley |@| Waltham, Mass.
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RPN fan