5 ms·

For the meaning, you just have to retrace back to where the things were defined, just like in programming. I am a mathematician, and I do not understand anythin

by xyzzyz 4y ago

For the meaning, you just have to retrace back to where the things were defined, just like in programming. I am a mathematician, and I do not understand anything in the linked screenshot either (other than big O notation, which many people here should actually know!). FWIW, the author’s preference for Greek letters is rather excessive for my personal taste.

gavagai691 4y ago
The Greek characters in the screenshot are standard for the subject. The letters "chi" and "psi" (in that order) are the preferred letters for denoting Dirichlet characters, and zeros of L-functions are always denoted by "rho."
- XCSme 4y ago
  See, this is what I meant. Not only reading in the paper where X was defined but have this in-depth knowledge of why a certain symbol was used and how it came to be, knowledge that probably not even all full-time mathematicians that studied their entire life have.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- xyzzyz 4y ago
  I see, this makes sense. Probably gets easier when one gets used to it.
amelius 4y ago
Ok, but there is a difference between looking up definitions and understanding something.
- XCSme 4y ago
  Agree, same in programming, you could see that f = (a,b) => a ^ (10+ b) , but not understand what it actually means and why 10 is there and not 9. Another example is the use of commonly known constants, such as pi, i or e. No paper will define those constants and explain indepth what they mean, so you need prior knowledge or to find external resources. I think for such complex papers you will find many such cases where extensive prior knowledge is needed.
mhh__ 4y ago
Unless they're deeply ingrained in the literature I find preferences for curly letters quite irritating (especially some older typefaces), dyslexic or not I genuinely cannot read them sometimes; it's a big blocker on my productivity. I sometimes rewrite them using A, B, C then try to understand them. This procedure should be automatic but unfortunately TeX is ancient.

by xyzzyz 4y ago

gavagai691 4y ago

The Greek characters in the screenshot are standard for the subject. The letters "chi" and "psi" (in that order) are the preferred letters for denoting Dirichlet characters, and zeros of L-functions are always denoted by "rho."

XCSme 4y ago
See, this is what I meant. Not only reading in the paper where X was defined but have this in-depth knowledge of why a certain symbol was used and how it came to be, knowledge that probably not even all full-time mathematicians that studied their entire life have.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
xyzzyz 4y ago
I see, this makes sense. Probably gets easier when one gets used to it.

amelius 4y ago

Ok, but there is a difference between looking up definitions and understanding something.

XCSme 4y ago
Agree, same in programming, you could see that f = (a,b) => a ^ (10+ b) , but not understand what it actually means and why 10 is there and not 9. Another example is the use of commonly known constants, such as pi, i or e. No paper will define those constants and explain indepth what they mean, so you need prior knowledge or to find external resources. I think for such complex papers you will find many such cases where extensive prior knowledge is needed.

mhh__ 4y ago

Unless they're deeply ingrained in the literature I find preferences for curly letters quite irritating (especially some older typefaces), dyslexic or not I genuinely cannot read them sometimes; it's a big blocker on my productivity. I sometimes rewrite them using A, B, C then try to understand them. This procedure should be automatic but unfortunately TeX is ancient.