GP Beta Test Forum

the X-Y block doesn't have a drawer like + and * and I've now got used to having one :)

The x / y doesn't have one either but its going to be a rare event to want to use one so not too bothered about that
Simon

Yes, that's intentional.

Addition and multiplication are "associative", meaning that you can apply the operations in any order and get the same result. That is:

(a + b) + c equals a + (b + c)

The same is not true of subtraction or multiplication:

a - (b - c) is not the same as (a - b) - c

Of course, we could adopt a convention, such as left-to-right associativity, but then people would need to know or guess that rule. That's harder for newcomers to GP, and even experts might sometimes misread such code. I would rather have the grouping be made explicit by the programmer, a practice I follow myself in every programming language I use, even if the language doesn't require it.

Note that if you want:

(((a - b) - c) - d) - ...

then you can use:

a - (+ b c d ...)

which is only one extra block.

Fair enough :)