[PYTHON MATRIX-SIG] Re: Conversion

[Andrew P. Mullhaupt]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
> 
> Not quite -- I did this after consulting some matrix-sig people.
> Apparently they couldn't make up their mind.  Nobody complained
> (before Andrew).
> 

Were any other mathematicians aware of this during the period in which
nobody complained?

You will find that there are some mathematicians who permit the use of
'j' in service courses for engineers, who have even put it in texts for
such courses. I am not aware of a single instance outside of this sort
where 'j' is used.

And it matters. When you teach students to use 'j' for 'i', and use
'log' for logarithms in heretical bases (e.g. 2, 10), you are erecting a
sequence of progressive barriers between them and the high-class
literature. Worse yet, in the case at hand, you are choosing the
convention so that elementary algebra books do not explain the feature
of the language using the same symbols as the language. This is no
problem for those who have mastered complex arithmetic, but it may prove
confusing to people who only have the occasional brush with it and do
not have an electrjcal engjneerjng text within easy reach.

Later,
Andrew Mullhaupt

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