28 ms·

Have to disagree. Those derivatives are a bad example of a good point. Most mathematical symbols aren't representable in code, at least until we're able to use

Have to disagree. Those derivatives are a bad example of a good point. Most mathematical symbols aren't representable in code, at least until we're able to use unicode identifiers and sub/superscripts in every language. When you're forced to write 'theta' instead of θ then you might as well just say 'angle' so your future maintenance programmer will have an easier time of it. An equation and an algorithm might achieve the same result but the ways they get there are so different that using different notation styles makes perfect sense. For example, a simple finite summation is a compact block in mathematical notation but it's a multi-line for loop in C. Trying to force the constraints of the 'source' notation on the implementation makes no sense. Remember, dA/dx means 'gradient'. You're not creating your own naming scheme, you're translating the concept of 'gradient' to the appropriate notation for the medium you're working in.

mistercow 14y ago
>Most mathematical symbols aren't representable in code, at least until we're able to use unicode identifiers and sub/superscripts in every language. If the Linux compose key supported more of the common mathematical symbols, I would have so much trouble not using them in all of my JS code. It's already hard not to use names like â to denote unit vectors. As a side note, I really want to make a JS library called "Eta" for creating progress bars (puns!), where the global namespace is under Η (the Greek letter), but I think that might piss people off, even if I did allow the visually identical H as an alias.
- derleth 14y ago
  > If the Linux compose key supported more of the common mathematical symbols, Google '.xcompose github' (without quotes) and see what you come up with. I use this one, myself: https://github.com/kragen/xcompose https://github.com/kragen/xcompose but there are a lot of others.
  - mistercow 14y ago
    That's pretty sweet. If anybody is having trouble getting it to work in KDE, I found that these instructions were necessary: https://wiki.edubuntu.org/ComposeKey#Persistent_Configuration https://wiki.edubuntu.org/ComposeKey#Persistent_Configuratio...
- rbonvall 14y ago
  > If the Linux compose key supported more of the common mathematical symbols, I would have so much trouble not using them in all of my JS code. In case you happen to use vim, you can easily type Unicode characters by using digraphs (Ctrl-K and then two characters): <c-k>a* → α <c-k>b* → β <c-k>g* → γ <c-k>OK → ✓ <c-k>NB → ∇ <c-k>RT → √ <c-k>(- → ∈ <c-k>-> → →

mistercow 14y ago

>Most mathematical symbols aren't representable in code, at least until we're able to use unicode identifiers and sub/superscripts in every language. If the Linux compose key supported more of the common mathematical symbols, I would have so much trouble not using them in all of my JS code. It's already hard not to use names like â to denote unit vectors. As a side note, I really want to make a JS library called "Eta" for creating progress bars (puns!), where the global namespace is under Η (the Greek letter), but I think that might piss people off, even if I did allow the visually identical H as an alias.

derleth 14y ago
> If the Linux compose key supported more of the common mathematical symbols, Google '.xcompose github' (without quotes) and see what you come up with. I use this one, myself: https://github.com/kragen/xcompose https://github.com/kragen/xcompose but there are a lot of others.
- mistercow 14y ago
  That's pretty sweet. If anybody is having trouble getting it to work in KDE, I found that these instructions were necessary: https://wiki.edubuntu.org/ComposeKey#Persistent_Configuration https://wiki.edubuntu.org/ComposeKey#Persistent_Configuratio...
rbonvall 14y ago
> If the Linux compose key supported more of the common mathematical symbols, I would have so much trouble not using them in all of my JS code. In case you happen to use vim, you can easily type Unicode characters by using digraphs (Ctrl-K and then two characters): <c-k>a* → α <c-k>b* → β <c-k>g* → γ <c-k>OK → ✓ <c-k>NB → ∇ <c-k>RT → √ <c-k>(- → ∈ <c-k>-> → →