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A word from Knuth on the matter (warning: PDF): http://arxiv.org/pdf/math/9205211v1.pdf http://arxiv.org/pdf/math/9205211v1.pdf See page 6.

davyjones 13y ago
Are PDF warnings relevant anymore? Of late Chromium and Firefox display PDF natively, sandboxed(?).
- RexRollman 13y ago
  I expect it has more to do with filesize.
  - Dylan16807 13y ago
    Nobody says 'warning, images' and most pdfs are pretty lightweight. This one's 200KB.
- waqf 13y ago
  On Android, both Chrome and Firefox still open an external tool and ruin your back button.
- dragonwriter 13y ago
  There are browsers that are not the desktop versions of Chrom(e/ium) or Firefox, and which are widely used.
Sniffnoy 13y ago
Why link to the PDF? Better to just link to the abstract: http://arxiv.org/abs/math/9205211 http://arxiv.org/abs/math/9205211 Edit: To be clear, this is good practice when linking to arXiv in general. From the abstract, one can easily click through to the PDF; not so the reverse. And the abstract allows one to do things like see different versions of the paper, search for other things by the same authors, etc.
jacobolus 13y ago
I really like that Knuth paper: the Iverson bracket in particular is some really handy notation. Mathematicians would do well to spend more effort on notation. Currently it doesn’t seem nearly as valued as theorem proving, but in my opinion it’s just as important, because it defines how we think about the structures we’re working with. I think computer programming would actually be quite excellent exercise for a mathematician, because it involves such heavy intimate experience with the problems of naming things, working with notation, and defining the boundaries of various abstractions. From kindergarten up through the end of an undergraduate degree, mathematics students mostly take existing notation and definitions for granted, and don’t get much hands-on experience with the problems which result from inventing bad notation or bad names. As a result, they have a less visceral understanding of the importance of good notation and good names. [I also think programming students should spend at least a bit of time working with as many different abstraction styles and notations as they can, as well as e.g. trying to implement new toy programming languages with new semantics.]

davyjones 13y ago

Are PDF warnings relevant anymore? Of late Chromium and Firefox display PDF natively, sandboxed(?).

RexRollman 13y ago
I expect it has more to do with filesize.
- Dylan16807 13y ago
  Nobody says 'warning, images' and most pdfs are pretty lightweight. This one's 200KB.
waqf 13y ago
On Android, both Chrome and Firefox still open an external tool and ruin your back button.
dragonwriter 13y ago
There are browsers that are not the desktop versions of Chrom(e/ium) or Firefox, and which are widely used.

Sniffnoy 13y ago

Why link to the PDF? Better to just link to the abstract: http://arxiv.org/abs/math/9205211 http://arxiv.org/abs/math/9205211 Edit: To be clear, this is good practice when linking to arXiv in general. From the abstract, one can easily click through to the PDF; not so the reverse. And the abstract allows one to do things like see different versions of the paper, search for other things by the same authors, etc.

jacobolus 13y ago

I really like that Knuth paper: the Iverson bracket in particular is some really handy notation. Mathematicians would do well to spend more effort on notation. Currently it doesn’t seem nearly as valued as theorem proving, but in my opinion it’s just as important, because it defines how we think about the structures we’re working with. I think computer programming would actually be quite excellent exercise for a mathematician, because it involves such heavy intimate experience with the problems of naming things, working with notation, and defining the boundaries of various abstractions. From kindergarten up through the end of an undergraduate degree, mathematics students mostly take existing notation and definitions for granted, and don’t get much hands-on experience with the problems which result from inventing bad notation or bad names. As a result, they have a less visceral understanding of the importance of good notation and good names. [I also think programming students should spend at least a bit of time working with as many different abstraction styles and notations as they can, as well as e.g. trying to implement new toy programming languages with new semantics.]