On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:11:58 PST "Guillermo J. Rozas" <[email protected]> wrote: > And one of the main reasons why mathematics are hard for people > to follow is because of its terseness.
There have been a number of studies about why math is hard but I don't see any evidence terseness has been identified as a main cause. Perhaps it is more cultural than anything else. > APL also uses an extended character set for terseness. > Why? Because of transmission costs, not because it makes it easier > to read. Please see Ken Iverson's "Notation as a tool of Thought" Turing Award paper (search for p444-iverson.pdf). In it he says "The thesis of the present paper is that the advantages of executability and universality found in programming languages can be effectively combined, in a single coherent language, with the advantages offered by mathematical notation. ... "In addition to the executability and universality emphasized in the introduction, a good notation should embody characteristics familiar to any user of mathematical notation: - Ease of express mg constructs arising in problems. - Suggestivity. - Ability to subordinate detail. - Economy. - Amenability to formal proofs." As for "case sensitivity", I mildly prefer a PL not folding case as this is better for interoperability and the times I have gotten confused due to case are far fewer than the times I have used (or wanted to use) case to denote related objects. -- A Scheme & APL enthusiast _______________________________________________ r6rs-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.r6rs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/r6rs-discuss
