[UEB Maths] Word indicators again
Joe Sullivan
uebmaths@nbp.org
Mon, 18 Jul 2005 13:48:45 -0400
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Hello everyone,
Thinking about what the "word" indicator would mean to the reader (the
traditional viewpoint of Committee 2), it seems to me that it would signal
that the following letters, possibly including fullstops, up to the defined
termination, are to be considered as a unit, whole unto itself but separate
from any letters or anything else that may abut on either side. I'm not
sure what to call such a thing; "unitary letter group" is surely too
long-winded, and "word" is too broad as well as already used for some other
UEB concepts. Maybe "function name" isn't unreasonable, given that
functions in classical mathematics are the clearest case that we've come up
with so far to justify the need for such an indicator, as long as we leave
the door open to other cases that may need similar treatment.
In my school days (just a few short years ago), math teachers preparing
handouts on a typewriter would instinctively use spaces to achieve the same
effect, e.g. a times the sine of x would always be written
a sin x
whereas, if the "a" were a numeric constant, it might not be spaced, and
likewise if the "x" were a Greek theta, it might not be spaced. Such
conventions take advantage of the fact that spaces normally don't mean
anything in classical mathematics notation. We could do something similar
if we provide creative guidance as to when spaces should be "understood" to
be present, and limit that guidance to classical math.
But if we wish to go ahead with explicitly indicated function names, in my
view we'd be adding a simple "mode" very similar to "line drawing mode" or
"arrow mode". Such a mode would not add any special complication to the
reader rules, though of course every defined mode adds to overall
complexity. It would also be possible to have short forms for certain
predefined function names, if we wish, by virtue of the mode definition
(not to be confused with a grade 2 contraction).
Best,
Joe
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<font size=3>Hello everyone,<br><br>
Thinking about what the "word" indicator would mean to the
reader (the traditional viewpoint of Committee 2), it seems to me that it
would signal that the following letters, possibly including fullstops, up
to the defined termination, are to be considered as a unit, whole unto
itself but separate from any letters or anything else that may abut on
either side. I'm not sure what to call such a thing; "unitary letter
group" is surely too long-winded, and "word" is too broad
as well as already used for some other UEB concepts. Maybe "function
name" isn't unreasonable, given that functions in classical
mathematics are the clearest case that we've come up with so far to
justify the need for such an indicator, as long as we leave the door open
to other cases that may need similar treatment.<br><br>
In my school days (just a few short years ago), math teachers preparing
handouts on a typewriter would instinctively use spaces to achieve the
same effect, e.g. a times the sine of x would always be written<br><br>
a sin x<br><br>
whereas, if the "a" were a numeric constant, it might not be
spaced, and likewise if the "x" were a Greek theta, it might
not be spaced. Such conventions take advantage of the fact that spaces
normally don't mean anything in classical mathematics notation. We could
do something similar if we provide creative guidance as to when spaces
should be "understood" to be present, and limit that guidance
to classical math.<br><br>
But if we wish to go ahead with explicitly indicated function names, in
my view we'd be adding a simple "mode" very similar to
"line drawing mode" or "arrow mode". Such a mode
would not add any special complication to the reader rules, though of
course every defined mode adds to overall complexity. It would also be
possible to have short forms for certain predefined function names, if we
wish, by virtue of the mode definition (not to be confused with a grade 2
contraction).<br><br>
Best,<br>
Joe<br>
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