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Roger Hart (Historian at U. Texas, wrote something on the history of linear algebra I liked) has a lean summary of the book at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rhart/c
by chalst 16y ago
Roger Hart (Historian at U. Texas, wrote something on the history of linear algebra I liked) has a lean summary of the book at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rhart/courses/materials/papers/trimble.html http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rhart/courses/materials/papers/tri...
Hart misses my favourite list, the Seven Nevers:
1. Never begin a sentence with But or And.
2. Never use contractions.
3. Never refer to the reader as you.
4. Never use the first person pronoun I.
5. Never end a sentence with a preposition.
6. Never split infinitives.
7. Never write a paragraph containing only a single sentence.
each of which Trimble delights in breaking.
- dmlorenzetti 16y agowrote something on the history of linear algebra I liked Do you mean "The Chinese Roots of Linear Algebra"? Can you say something more about it?
- chalst 16y agoYes, which is the name of the book, which is on my to read list, and a website proposal, which I've studied. He documents the linear-algebraic calculations used by Chinese mathematicians in C4th. He's written some Perl scripts that implement these calculations. The website proposal is at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rhart/algebra/ http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rhart/algebra/
- tzs 16y ago> 5. Never end a sentence with a preposition. > 6. Never split infinitives. There is no good reason to strictly follow either of those. The rule against split infinitives was invented in the mid 19th century, and was not accepted by the majority of leading grammarians. It did become popular with journalists and the general public, though. Most modern authorities say there is nothing inherently wrong with splitting infinitives, although it is often a sign of a weak sentence. Sometimes, though, any rewrite to remove the split infinitive would make the sentence awkward of ambiguous in which case splitting the infinitive would be the preferred form. The rule against ending a sentence with a preposition is even weaker. It is often described by grammarians as "spurious" or a "myth". Both of these are covered well here: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/grammartips/grammar-tips http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/grammartips/grammar-t...
- chalst 16y agoThere's no good reason to follow any of these, and as Trimble argues, good reason to break each of them if you care more about effective writing than wagging fingers.