Concept
Polish notation
Overview
Polish notation (PN), also known as normal Polish notation (NPN), Łukasiewicz notation, Warsaw notation, Polish prefix notation, Eastern Notation, or simply prefix notation, is a mathematical notation in which operators precede their operands, in contrast to the more common infix notation, in which operators are placed between operands, as well as reverse Polish notation (RPN), in which operators follow their operands. It does not need any parentheses as long as each operator has a fixed number of operands. The description "Polish" refers to the nationality of logician Jan Łukasiewicz, who invented Polish notation in 1924.
Sometimes the term Polish notation refers collectively to normal Polish notation and reverse Polish notation (prefix notation and postfix notation, the two alternatives to infix notation).
When Polish notation is used as a syntax for mathematical expressions by programming language interpreters it is readily parsed into abstract syntax trees and can, in fact, define a one-to-one representation for the same. Because of this, Lisp (see Implementations, below) and related programming languages define their entire syntax in prefix notation (and others use postfix notation).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
On the other hand an event-particle is defined so as to exhibit this character of being a route of approximation marked out by entities posited in sense-awareness. A definite event-particle is defined in reference to a definite punct in the following manner: Let the condition {sigma} mean the property of covering all the abstractive elements which are members of that punct; so that an abstractive set which satisfies…
Alfred North Whitehead, The Concept of Nature The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919
States what Polish notation is; the author is tied to Polish notation in the knowledge graph.
In respect to any complex eternal object, _S(D1, D2, ... Dn)_, the eternal objects _D1, ... Dn_, whose individual essences are constitutive of the individual essence of _S(D1, ... Dn)_, are called the components of _S(D1, ... Dn)_. It is obvious that the grade of complexity to be ascribed to _S(D1, ... Dn)_ is to be taken as one above the highest grade of complexity to be found among its components.
Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the modern world
States what Polish notation is; the author is tied to Polish notation in the knowledge graph.
Take such a property as being named Jones. If a man is named Jones, so is his son; we will therefore call the property of being called Jones hereditary with respect to the relation of father and son. If a man is called Jones, all his descendants in the direct male line are called Jones; this follows from the fact that the property is hereditary. Now, instead of the relation of father and son, consider the relation…
Bertrand Russell, Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy
States what Polish notation is; the author is tied to Polish notation in the knowledge graph.
Philosophers who discussed Polish notation
Related ideas
- Józef Maria Bocheński
- Negation
- Logical conjunction
- Logical connective
- Propositional logic
- Mathematical logic
- Polish language
- Principia Mathematica
- Sheffer stroke
- Jan Łukasiewicz
- Arthur Prior
- Modal logic
- Bijection
- Bertrand Russell
- Arity
- Alfred North Whitehead
- Quantifier (logic)
- Logic
- Gottlob Frege
- Alonzo Church
- Computer science
- Alfred Tarski
- Material conditional
- Universal quantification
Place in the tradition
Part of History of philosophy in Poland.