Prefix representation

 

• polynomials are represented by lists using e.g., the prefix operators PLUS for addition, DIFFERENCE for subtraction (or unary MINUS), TIMES for multiplication and EXPT for exponentiation; the first element of a list is the prefix operator and the rest of the elements are its arguments

• the polynomial
  
  

• is represented by the list (PLUS (TIMES 4 (EXPT X 3) ) (TIMES 2 X) (MINUS 5) )

• this representation can be used for arbitrary algebraic expressions

• algorithms using this representation are not particularly fast