From: L' Ermit (lhermit@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jan 07 2002 - 08:58:34 MST
Roly Sookias said:
Hey, everyone, I know your all busy making mathlangs and stuff (which I
greatly admire, but fear that I wouldn't be of any help with, although if I
can help, don't hesiate to ask!), but if you can think of any individual,
easily recognisable symbols which could probably be hand written, typed or
engraved (so would need to be able to have an angular form) PLEASE PLEASE
PLEASE post them (as ideas I guess) or send them to me (in picture form if
possible) for me to use in my slightly revised alphabet!!! Cheers!
Oh, and yash, as I said before:
...if such an excellent language... [a mathslang] ...were to be devised it
would have to be done by a large committee and very slowly and logically. I
feel that these qualities are very important as I have seen far to many "one
man jobs" such as Esperanto and Novial which can by no means be said to be
fully logical (!!!) and if a language is to adopted globally then it would
have to be clear that it was the best job that could be done and not just
accepted (like English for example) because it is popular or similar to
popular languages [although I doubt a mathslang would be that similar].
I don't mean this as an attack on your idea, I am simply pointing out a way
that your idea could fail. I am aware that my alphabet is a bit of a
"one-man-job", but I stress that my alphabet is purely an idea or base for a
revision, not the fully revised version (by a long way!).
Hermit comments:
1) Anything designed by a committee is likely to be a disaster. The camel is
said to be a mouse designed by a committee. In my experience this is true.
ADA is a perfect example.
2) A "math language" already exists - but it is symbolic rather than verbal
for the simple reason that mathematics is not a verbal activity (another
reason why this is an exercise in futility). The language, APL was designed
by Ken Iverson (one person!) in the 1950s as a rationalization of
mathematical notation. The notation was implemented as a computer language
in the early 1960s and has been used to specify most systems produced by IBM
since that date. The symbol set is specified at
http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~ljdickey/apl-rep/tables/ The language is best
learnt from the Gilman and Rose introductory work. Various implementations
are available in the public domain although IMO the commercial
implementations have some advantages (but tend to be expensive). A principle
reason that the language is useful is that an equation expressed in APL is
succinct and can be executed directly.
3) As an aside, as any mathematically literate person can tell you, the
symbol PI embodies the entire transcendental value of PI to whatever degree
of precision is required - and since 1995, we have been able to calculate
the value of any digit without requiring the preceding digits. In the real
world, precision beyond the fourth digit is seldom used.
4) Circus trick feats of memory or arithmetic do not form any part of
serious mathematics (although the ability to recognize integrals is useful).
The ability to think rationally, symbolically and visually (graphically) is
important - and verbal conceptualization has been shown to be
counterproductive as it hinders the vizualization process.
Hermit
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