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Sorry, but mathematics notation is not THAT cryptic. Yes, it prefer single-letter variables, but there are not a lot of special notation. Summation (Capital Si

Sorry, but mathematics notation is not THAT cryptic. Yes, it prefer single-letter variables, but there are not a lot of special notation. Summation (Capital Sigma), Multiplication (Capital Pi), integration, roots. Limit? "lim". Logarithm? "log", etc. It is not like 50 glyphs of array languages. It is maybe 5 glyphs and 10 other conventions (like division over-under, root and power). Also, mathematics notation is 2D and multi-size (capital sigma is much larger than variable names and numbers, summation indices on under and over sigmas is much smaller) which helps immensely. Same formula written in one font in one line will be much less comprehensible. UPDATE: Yes, I forogot about E-inverted (exists) and A-inverted (for all), and two or three common operators related to sets (includes, subset), but they are not needed for calculations even in math, only for theorems. And array languages are not theorem proofers. Each area of math could have its own special notations too, but I don't expect that category theory specialist will understand notation of very specialized complex functions paper.

dspillett 3y ago
When I say “from a heavy maths background” I mean more than arithmetic, basic algebra, calculus and such. Set theory has quite a dictionary of symbols & conventions and I assume a lot of the array language terminology/symbols comes from there, complexity theory has some of its own too, and so forth. Take a look at some substantive mathematical proofs in various areas and tell me there are only 15 glyphs/conventions that are commonly used! > Sorry, but mathematics notation is not THAT cryptic. It can certainly be that information dense. Whether that is considered cryptic or not is in the eye of the beholder. > It is maybe 5 glyphs and 10 other conventions Heck, we've got more than 5 glyphs just for expressing (in)equality: =, ≡, <, >, ≤, ≥, ≠, ≢, ≈ (and those are just from memory of doing maths to A-level nearly three decades ago, a couple of years of CompSci after that, & programming since, and that isn't touching on symbol sets from subsets of mathematics like set theory). > Each area of math could have its own special notations too, but I don't expect that category theory specialist will understand notation of very specialized complex functions paper. While each area will have specialist notation that is not commonly understood by those unfamiliar with the area, most maths people will understand a chunk of the notation from a number of areas. I don't consider myself a maths person and I know the basic glyphs from a couple of areas when I see them.
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dspillett 3y ago

When I say “from a heavy maths background” I mean more than arithmetic, basic algebra, calculus and such. Set theory has quite a dictionary of symbols & conventions and I assume a lot of the array language terminology/symbols comes from there, complexity theory has some of its own too, and so forth. Take a look at some substantive mathematical proofs in various areas and tell me there are only 15 glyphs/conventions that are commonly used! > Sorry, but mathematics notation is not THAT cryptic. It can certainly be that information dense. Whether that is considered cryptic or not is in the eye of the beholder. > It is maybe 5 glyphs and 10 other conventions Heck, we've got more than 5 glyphs just for expressing (in)equality: =, ≡, <, >, ≤, ≥, ≠, ≢, ≈ (and those are just from memory of doing maths to A-level nearly three decades ago, a couple of years of CompSci after that, & programming since, and that isn't touching on symbol sets from subsets of mathematics like set theory). > Each area of math could have its own special notations too, but I don't expect that category theory specialist will understand notation of very specialized complex functions paper. While each area will have specialist notation that is not commonly understood by those unfamiliar with the area, most maths people will understand a chunk of the notation from a number of areas. I don't consider myself a maths person and I know the basic glyphs from a couple of areas when I see them.

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