On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 7:35 PM, Marko Rauhamaa <ma...@pacujo.net> wrote:
> Python is a formal language with a well-defined syntax and reasonably
> well-understood semantics. That's all that matters. Any resemblance to
> the much more ad-hoc syntax of classical mathematics is almost
> coincidental.
Well, it's a bit more than coincidence. It's the ELIZA effect:

http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/E/ELIZA-effect.html

Using notations that some people will be familiar with is better than
constructing brand new notations from scratch, even if not everyone
can gain that benefit. (Which is an argument in favour of Python's
percent-formatting of strings; there are plenty of people out there
who'll instantly understand that %d will plop in an integer and %s a
string - even some non-programmers know that notation, as it's found
in config files, translation data, etc, etc.)

ChrisA
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