1, 2, 3... have a natural ordering. a, b, c...i, j, k...z do not. Alphabetical ordering is convention and no more than that. To say, let's apply this conventi

1, 2, 3... have a natural ordering. a, b, c...i, j, k...z do not. Alphabetical ordering is convention and no more than that. To say, let's apply this convention to a problem to which such an ordering has literally no relevance, and ignore their value as a mnemonic, is bizarre beyond my comprehension. I suspect some ultra smart people like Bellman, and possibly you, can attach completely arbitrary labels to things and immediately use those. I suspect that's what happened here. But I can't, and I'm pretty sure most people can't. To us, it helps greatly if the label has some relationship to the thing labelled