• Inky@lemmy.ca
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    3 years ago

    This post confuses me. Why would code be simpler than the math notation? Both involve symbolic abstraction of basically the same complexity

    • hglman@lemmy.ml
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      3 years ago

      Its got to be a relatively small group who knows enough to understand loops and is also afraid of math symbols.

    • GTG3000@programming.dev
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      3 years ago

      Math notation is just terrible in general because a lot of it is shorthand made up by someone who likes single-letter variables. A symbol you can’t type, something above, something below.

      A for loop is clear and descriptive.
      Or if you’re feeling fancy, you could go functional with reduce(add, range(0, 5), 0).

      • Inky@lemmy.ca
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        3 years ago

        Mathematical notation was designed to be written by hand. It is at least as clear and descriptive as any syntax from a programming language. You’re pretending that the abstraction behind a for loop is somehow less than that behind a sum or product notation.