undefined | Better HN

0 pointsWillAdams11mo ago0 comments

Reading up on the history of mathematics really makes that clear as shown in

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1098132.Thomas_Harriot_s...

(ob. discl., I did the typesetting for that)

It shows at least one lengthy and quite wordy example of how an equation would have been stated, then contrasts it in the "new" symbolic representation (this was one of the first major works to make use of Robert Recorde's development of the equals sign).

0 comments

tim33311mo ago

Although if you look at most maths textbooks or papers there's a fair bit of English waffle per equation. I guess both have their place.

dmoy11mo ago

People definitely could stand to write a lot more comments in their code. And like... yea, textbook style prose, not just re-stating the code in slightly less logical wording.

hackable_sand11mo ago

Yes exactly. Or like signposts on a road.

"You came from these few places, you might go to these few places, watch out for these bugbears if you go down that one path."

WillAdamsOP11mo ago

Welcome to the world of advocating for Literate Programming:

http://literateprogramming.com/

sabas12311mo ago

As somebody that occasionally studies pure math books those can be very, very light on regular English.

Jensson11mo ago

That makes them much easier to read though, its so hard to find a specific statement in English compared to math notation since its easier to find a specific symbol than a specific word.

whatevertrevor11mo ago

Textbooks aren't just communicating theorems and proofs (which are often just written in formal symbolic language), but also the language required to teach these concepts, why these are important, how these could be used and sometimes even the story behind the discovery of fields.

So this is far from an accurate comparison.

overfeed11mo ago

> Textbooks aren't just communicating theorems and proofs

Not even maths papers, which are vehicle for theorem's and proofs, are purely symbolic language and equations. Natural language prose is included when appropriate.

umanwizard11mo ago

Theorems and proofs are almost never written in formal symbolic language.

1 more reply

cratermoon11mo ago

Yes, plain language text to support and translate symbology to concepts facilitates initial comprehension. It's like two ends of a connection negotiating protocols: once agreed upon, communication proceeds using only symbols.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse