Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!news.glorb.com!feed.news.qwest.net!mpls-nntp-02.inet.qwest.net!216.196.98.147.MISMATCH!border4.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!news.iecc.com!nerds-end From: Hans Aberg Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: Have we reached the asymptotic plateau of innovation in programming la Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:10:46 +0100 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 23 Sender: news@iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <12-03-029@comp.compilers> References: <12-03-019@comp.compilers> <12-03-026@comp.compilers> NNTP-Posting-Host: news.iecc.com X-Trace: leila.iecc.com 1331699264 48048 64.57.183.58 (14 Mar 2012 04:27:44 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@iecc.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 04:27:44 +0000 (UTC) Keywords: design, history Posted-Date: 14 Mar 2012 00:27:44 EDT X-submission-address: compilers@iecc.com X-moderator-address: compilers-request@iecc.com X-FAQ-and-archives: http://compilers.iecc.com Xref: csiph.com comp.compilers:496 On 2012/03/12 06:49, glen herrmannsfeldt wrote: > As I understand it, Fortran introduced the multi-character variable > name, pretty much universal in programming languages, but > mathematicians haven't caught on yet. Math started out with sentences like "add the first unknown quantity to the second unknown quantity", but over the centuries, it was eventually shortened to expressions like "x + y". So computing takes a step back in evolution, in part due to a limited character set. But that is slowly changing in view of Unicode and STIX fonts, which are already in use in proof assistants, for example, Isabelle. Otherwise, there are a lot of multi-character symbols in use in math, for example, standard functions. Users of TeX know that these are typeset tighter than the corresponding variables. So $sin$ will be typeset as three variables with extra space between them indicating implicit multiplication, whereas to get the function name one would have to use $\sin$. Hans