A number of traditional programming language constructs are subsumed by
the Russell notion of a function application.  These include procedure
and function calls, arithmetic and Boolean operations, assignments,
and storage allocation for variables.

The general syntax of a function application is

    [arg_expr, ..., arg_expr] op_expr [arg_expr, ..., arg_expr]

Which part of the argument list appears before or after the operator
is not significant.

Brackets surrounding an empty argument list may be omitted if

1) there is an argument list on the other side of the operator, or

2) the compiler can infer from signature information that the application
   must take place.

Brackets around single arguments may be omitted if there existence
can be reconstructed from the precedences of the operators involved.
The following are legal applications:

    [a]f[b]     (equivalent to f[a,b])
    x := 1      (equivalent to [x] := [1], or :=[x,1])
    n!          (equivalent to [n]!)
    x := (n!)   (equivalent to [x] := [(n!)])
    f(n)        (equivalent to f n, and thus f[n])
    3.1415      (equivalent to .[3,1415], which
                 is expanded to .[3,1415,4])

The operator expression op_exp must have function signature.
Call its signature SIG.  Let SIG' be SIG with each occurrence of a
parameter name in a parameter or result signature replaced by the
corresponding argument expression.  The signatures of the argument
expressions must be the same as the parameter signatures in SIG',
with the exception that type arguments may contain components which
are not required by the parameter signature.  The signature of the
application is the result signature of SIG'.

The order in which arguments to a function are evaluated is undefined.

See also: import_rule, precedence, inference.

Implementation note: The majority of function applications are not
compiled into full procedure calls.  They may not show up on, for example,
adb stack traces.  On the other hand, introducing many small procedures
frequently does not result in a serious performance penalty.