This link has been bookmarked by 3 people . It was first bookmarked on 24 Jun 2008, by harry palmer.
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17 May 10
James ChoateI’ve thought math notation was a bad way to express a lot ideas for a while, but this is the first time that I’ve had a good example and comparison to code.
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24 Jun 08
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- Massive use of indices. This creates a typeless environment, in which it’s hard to connect one equation to the next, because everything is connected by indices…And these indices are invariably named i or j.
- That’s right, you’re only allowed to use single-letter variable names. To avoid running out, people use capitals, greek letters and fancy italics in various incompatible ways.
- Math notation often collapses multiple items into what would be a single object in a computer program, but only specifies how they relate in a separate figure. The rest of the time, the relation is implicit.
- Unlimited syntax!
- Yet, because some syntaxes are popular, they get re-used a lot to mean different things. Juxtaposition is the worst, because it’s implicit and thus doesn’t require writing anything.
- Most importantly, equations do not run on a computer. That means that something supposed to be fully formal, math, isn’t. It’s just like code examples in books–unless they are automatically tested every time the book is compiled, then you have to assume they’re wrong. And you can’t automatically test equations.
Math Notation Is Terrible
I’ve thought math notation was a bad way to express a lot ideas for a while, but this is the first time that I’ve had a good example and comparison to code.
Reasons
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10 Jun 08
Rick Minerichputer. That means that something supposed to be fully formal, math, isn’t. It’s just like code examples in books–unless they are automatically tested every time the book is compiled, then you have to assume they’re wrong. And you can’t automatic
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