**Christopher Lemmer Webber** @cwebber@octodon.social · May 14, 2018, 15:10

**Christopher Lemmer Webber** @cwebber@octodon.social · May 14, 2018, 15:10

Christopher Lemmer Webber @cwebber@octodon.social

I'm still heavily hampered and embarassed by my inability to process much mathematical notation easily in compsci papers :\

**Abbie Normal** @catonano · May 14, 2018, 15:12

**Abbie Normal** @catonano · May 14, 2018, 15:12

@cwebber

we all are

That's why the lesson of the SICP about how the functions commonly used in calculus can be expressed as scheme idioms is so important

**Christopher Lemmer Webber** @cwebber@octodon.social · May 14, 2018, 15:16

**Christopher Lemmer Webber** @cwebber@octodon.social · May 14, 2018, 15:16

@catonano There's also a really good preface in SICM (Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics) where they tear apart how bad much of mathematical notation is. I also had a conversation with Sussman in person where I admitted how bad I am at reading math notation and he said "everyone has a hard time, because mathematical notation is a natural language"

A natural language! I never thought of it that way.

**Abbie Normal** @catonano · 2018-05-14T15:24:05Z

Abbie Normal @catonano

@cwebber

I planned to read it last autumn, but that plan went south

I'll read it sooner or later

May 14, 2018, 15:24 · Web · 0 · 0

**Christopher Lemmer Webber** @cwebber@octodon.social · May 14, 2018, 15:24

**Christopher Lemmer Webber** @cwebber@octodon.social · May 14, 2018, 15:24

@catonano I haven't managed to make any headway into it beyond the preface ;)