On 10/13/19 12:54 AM, Akim Demaille wrote:
yy_state_num values are typically narrower than int, so following Leibniz's
notational principle that notation should reflect reality, the former type name
should be narrower than the latter, which means your preference is better.
:) I was unaware of this principle of his.
It was a principle of Leibniz’s characteristica universalis project, where he
took up the challenge of constructing a new language or notation for
representing human thought. Descartes had suggested the project in a letter to
Mersenne but immediately dismissed it as utopian; Leibniz, possibly the best
notation designer in history, knew about Descartes’s letter and most likely
figured he could pull it off even if Descartes couldn’t.
Unfortunately there isn’t much written about that project, at least in English.
And I can’t resist mentioning that later in life Kurt Gödel became obsessed with
the project and believed that its publication had been suppressed by a hostile
conspiracy. Although Gödel was mentally disturbed and his obsession has been
dismissed, it is true that most of Leibniz’s writings have never been published.
But I digress....
