Re: What is the "+/" operator?

Quoting Martin Rubey <[email protected]>:

> ... 
> Igor Khavkine writes:
>
>> Can someone explain this syntax? Looking at the Axiom .spad files,
>> I see that it has general usage +/[...some list construction...]. 
>
> It is old syntax for reduce and should go away. 
>

Rather, I think it is the equivalent BOOT syntax for reduce (right,
Gaby?) and I think it should stay in BOOT where there is no static
type checking. But I agree that it should not appear directly in SPAD
files. This expression returns a syntax error in the Axiom interpreter. 

If I recall correctly, there a few other places in the Axiom library code
where old BOOT syntax appears (perhaps for efficiency or to avoid
awkard type manipulations) but should be really be replaced by a
more appropriate Spad idiom. 


Regards,
Bill Page.