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I was writing a small article about [Set, Set Builder Notation, and Set Comprehension](https://adropincalm.com/blog/set-set-builder-natatio-set-comprehension-ex
by borracciaBlu 10mo ago
I was writing a small article about [Set, Set Builder Notation, and Set Comprehension](https://adropincalm.com/blog/set-set-builder-natatio-set-comprehension-explained/ https://adropincalm.com/blog/set-set-builder-natatio-set-com...) and while i was investigating it surprised me how many different ways are to describe the same thing. Eg: see all the notation of a Set or a Tuple.
One last rant point is that you don't have "the manual" of math in the very same way you would go on your programming language man page and so there is no single source of truth.
Everybody assumes...
- BlackFingolfin 10mo agoI find it strange to compare "math" with one programming language. Mathematics is a huge and diverse field, with many subcommunities and hence also differing notation. Your rant would be akin to this if the sides are reversed: "It's surprising how many different ways there are to describe the same thing. Eg: see all the notations for dictionaries (hash tables? associative arrays? maps?) or lists (vectors? arrays?). You don't have "the manual" of programming languages. "
- segfaultex 10mo agoNot the original commenter, but I 100% agree that it's weird we have so many ways to describe dictionaries/hash tables/maps/etc. and lists.
- worthless-trash 10mo ago> You don't have "the manual" of programming languages. " Well, we kinda do when you can say "this python program" the problem with a lot of math is that you can't even tell which manual to look up.
- nkrisc 10mo agoSomeone not educated in programming would not know that a given text is Python source code.
- worthless-trash 10mo agoSame problem, but unlike math notation, it is MUCH clearer and even my 10 year old newphew can tell python from javascript and C.
- nkrisc 10mo agoI would wager that a vast majority of people on the planet could not distinguish Python from JavaScript from C.
- worthless-trash 10mo agoWhen it says "this python" program, they dont need to, it says its python. Math notation doesn't have that clarity.
- mzl 10mo agoI wrote about overlapping intervals a while ago, and used what I thought was the standard math notation for closed and half-open intervals. From comments, I learned that half-open intervals are written differently in french mathematics: https://lobste.rs/s/cireck/how_check_for_overlapping_intervals#c_sy17qx https://lobste.rs/s/cireck/how_check_for_overlapping_interva...