On 9 December 2012 19:30, William Tanksley, JAnother r <wtanksle...@gmail.com> wrote: > "Let me know -- where did you teach that gave you the idea that people > find traditional notation easy?"
I did, and I am teaching to both university students and school students. I'll add that they are not the crowd that would fail at algebra, in fact they are above average level. I also know many people who teach mathematics or informatics at school, at different places and certainly to students with average (or below) mathematical abilities. My wife has been a school teacher in mathematics for years. Neither my experience nor that of all those people, or that of our students shows problems with the notation. A person may be good at mathematics or similar subjects, or not, but this has nothing to do with notation. This is supported by observing that, to my best knowledge, notation is not among the issues raised in articles, at conferences, etc. where the problems of education are observed. Consequently, I not only disbelieve your claims that the usual algebraic notation used in school is massively problematic – I find them ridiculous to the point of absurd. > than continuing the armchair psychoanalysis that did fill too much > space in my post. Psychoanalysis? I have no idea what you are talking about. I simply and clearly reminded you that your, or whoever else's difficulties with mathematics might have been of a completely different source than the notation that you blame. > We're discussing your claim that J notation is inadequate > compared to "traditional notation". Now you are putting words in my mouth. I didn't say that. > I countered that by pointing out > that J notation covers more of mathematics with a standard notation > than "traditional notation" does. Apart from the fact that the discussion is not about what J 'covers' but about how easy it is to school students, I don't see where you did that. Your previous post didn't say a word about J – it was devoted entirely to complaining against traditional notation and silly attempts to insult me. > Check out Iverson's "Arithmetic" and "Calculus" texts at > http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Books. Just go take a look -- they're > freely downloadable and really worth a scan. At least look at the > tables of contents to see that the topics covered are respectable. Thanks, but I don't need your generous recommendations. I know these books, and other works of Iverson. I am very well aware of the breadth of topics that can be expressed in J, but that is not at all what we are discussing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
