I imagine that the book might as well have used another (simpler) language. Now, as I see it, to understand the math, you need quite a lot of domain knowledge.

I imagine that the book might as well have used another (simpler) language. Now, as I see it, to understand the math, you need quite a lot of domain knowledge. A formula doesn't make sense out of context. Most statements written in programming languages do that, in a much higher degree. Therefore, to actually do the ECC, I think it's quicker just to read the language specification of your (simple) language, than actually understand all of the math being the formulas. Granted, you wouldn't understand WHY it works. And that's my point. Comparing math to programming languages is like comparing apples to oranges.