title: Mathematica Notation and syntax mods
body: <p>I am experimenting with syntax mods in Mathematica, using the Notation package.</p>
  
  <p>I am not interested in mathematical notation for a specific field, but general purpose syntax modifications and extensions, especially notations that reduce the verbosity of Mathematica's VeryLongFunctionNames, clean up unwieldy constructs, or extend the language in a pleasing way.</p>
  
  <p>An example modification is defining <code>Fold[f, x]</code> to evaluate as <code>Fold[f, First@x, Rest@x]</code><br>
  This works well, and is quite convenient.</p>
  
  <p>Another would be defining <code>*{1,2}</code> to evaluate as <code>Sequence @@ {1,2}</code> as inspired by Python; this may or may not work in Mathematica.</p>
  
  <p>Please provide information or links addressing:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>Limits of notation and syntax modification</p></li>
  <li><p>Tips and tricks for implementation</p></li>
  <li><p>Existing packages, examples or experiments</p></li>
  <li><p>Why this is a good or bad idea</p></li>
  </ul>