19 June, 2007

Notation: expository articles

One of the things I think about a lot is notation for making
calculations and investigations more reliable and productive. One of
my pet hates is articles that attempt to define some brilliant new
notation but just present definitions without actually giving any
examples of calculations. Obviously I recognise page limits and
annoying editors, but this
article
doesn't do more than define things, without showing how
they can be useful. (Institutional subscription cookie might be required.)

[Update: the article is actually one of a long series, with the latter half actually doing some very interesting calculations in the diagram notation.]

In contrast, Predrag
Cvitanovic's book on Group Theory
(which I'm still slowly working
through in off hours) does actually demonstrate some calculations. I
still can't help wondering why this is so rare though.

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