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 -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
