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In my opinion formulas aren't text. Yes you could read them out loud but that way they would be harder to understand than looking at the formula. Try understand
by legulere 11y ago
In my opinion formulas aren't text. Yes you could read them out loud but that way they would be harder to understand than looking at the formula. Try understanding maths really written down in text without formulas.
It's also wrong to speak about text being the oldest communication technology when it developed from pictograms.
- DougWebb 11y agoI think the author intended that both formulas and pictograms are forms of text. They're both made up of abstract symbols that can be composed to create meaning.
- jameshart 11y agoRight, but "plain text" is just a one dimensional stream of symbols. A mathematical formula is a two dimensional arrangement of symbols - there's a degree of additional complexity there which moves it from 'text' closer to 'diagram'. A scatter plot is just abstract symbols creating meaning, too - but it's clearly not just text.