4 ms·
Mathematical notation is much harder to read than prose. It does a very good job of serving as a mnemonic for something you already understand, and a very poor
by bcoates 14y ago
Mathematical notation is much harder to read than prose. It does a very good job of serving as a mnemonic for something you already understand, and a very poor job of explaining novel (to the reader) concepts.
It's also as bad as natural language for ambiguity and informality.
I don't think either English text or mathematical notation is a magic wand for readable programming language; It's more about reducing accidental ambiguity and the amount of mental context needed for parsing 'natural' constructs in the language.
- tjholowaychuk 14y agothis^
- mmcnickle 14y agoPersonally, most of the benefit I see from mathematical notation is down to pattern matching -- "Oh, this looks like a Fourier transform". The idea seems to be supported by the fact that there is a unwritten convention for which symbols to use for which concept (alpha over beta for example) and the way in which the equations are laid out.