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...math has no such order. Half the point of algebra is that the two sides of the equation are semantically equivalent and can be swapped at will.
by monocasa 4y ago
...math has no such order. Half the point of algebra is that the two sides of the equation are semantically equivalent and can be swapped at will.
- pjmlp 4y agoGood luck convincing anyone that value = variable makes sense.
- monocasa 4y agoMy math teachers had no problem with '42 = x' vs 'x = 42' as long as the steps made sense to get there. In fact they'd probably comment that there was no need to go with 'x = 42' if I obviously took a circuitous route simply to end up with x on the left side of the equation, as that would have demonstrated a lack of internalizing some of the base ideas of algebra and it's approach of equation symmetry.
- LudwigNagasena 4y agoYou should distinguish the meaning of = in mathematical and meta-mathematical statements. “42y = yx, therefore 42 = x” is fine; but “let 42 = x” is not.
- fweimer 4y agoSome older C coding styles recommend that order because before compilers added warnings, “if (17 = variable)” resulted in a diagnostic, while “if (variable = 17)” would not. Nowadays, I think most programmers prefer putting the fastest-changing expression first.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- pjmlp 4y agoYeah that is due to clever C semantics that that should never had allowed for anything other than boolean expressions in conditionals like proper grown languages.
- akira2501 4y agoAnd it has no state. Half the point of computation is maintaining state for the purpose of efficiency. So, computation gets an "assignment" operator where pure math lacks one, pure math being relegated to subscripts of time and indicator functions instead.