From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: 114809,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid114809,public X-Google-Thread: fac41,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: jsa@alexandria (Jon S Anthony) Subject: Re: OO, C++, and something much better! Date: 1997/02/16 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 219216481 Sender: news@organon.com (news) References: <5de62l$f13$1@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au> Organization: Organon Motives, Inc. Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.ada,comp.object Date: 1997-02-16T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <33054E63.C2A@concentric.net> Alan Lovejoy writes: > Is there a useful semantic distinction between "function" and "operator" > in math? If so, what is it? Generally speaking, the terms "operator" and "operation" are used to refer to functions which map an "n-order" set to the "base" or "1-order" set. Let A be a set and A^n be the cross product of A with it self n times (n could be 1). If f is a function from A^n to A, f:A^n -> A, then f is an "n-ary operation". For example, addition is a simple binary operation on N (set of naturals). The identity operation is a simple unary operation for any set. Strictly speaking, the term "operator" is used to refer to the particular symbol for the operation, but in practice (outside a strictly formal account) this is typically "slopped over". /Jon -- Jon Anthony Organon Motives, Inc. Belmont, MA 02178 617.484.3383 jsa@organon.com