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> I never came across any paper filled with enough formulas that it would make sense to compress at the cost of clarity Fair point, but with this approach, ev
by chestervonwinch 9y ago
> I never came across any paper filled with enough formulas that it would make sense to compress at the cost of clarity
Fair point, but with this approach, even simple formulae could really clutter up a page if the variable names are long and descriptive (imagine just a rational function!). Also, as with programming, folks might abbreviate (e.g., `vel_thg`) and then we're nearly back at square one.
- lucb1e 9y agoAlso in programming, when my girlfriend (the mathematician[1]) used single letters in code and I helped her with the coding part of it, she had to remind me what some letters stood for. With acronyms or abbreviations I might need to ask a first time (or maybe not even that, especially if you put a comment with the full version upon declaration), but it's definitely easier to remember what is what. But anyway that's programming. Papers are a little different of course, with limited space so usually there are no big code parts with declarations and comments. Which is also why I like blog posts: things are clickable and interactive. A PDF is super static and you can't expect a reader to click through to the code or to be able to zoom in. [1] well, she claims not to be, but from my POV it's math even if she says it's a subfield.