The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
Arrow notation specifies a class of data using a combination of other classes of data. In this sense it is analogous to the "listof" notation in some programming languages. Symbolically, the arrow notation is represented by an arrow symbol.
The specification of a data class involves the creation of so-called direct data definitions, actual aspects of the data as opposed to a name. More concretely, the arrow notation specifies the types of arguments that define the data and the kind of value it produces
An arrow notation serves several useful functions. In some programming languages, like Perl, the use of the block notation to describe an item can be difficult to read. Arrow notation can make the description crisper and more easily interpretable. For example, a block notation reference description could appear as:
The alternative arrow notation, conveying the same information, would be:
Arrow notation is also useful for large numbers. An up-arrow notation system for large numbers was devised by Donald Knuth in 1976. The number of up arrows corresponds to a certain value. As an example, in Knuth's system a googol, which is 10 to the power of 100 is represented as 10 10 2.