Comment by appplication
2 years ago
Two main reason: 1) I will never be able to easily type the fancy R. Anytime I need to type it I’ll need to google it or find a previous reference to copy paste. It presents bad UX for continued communication, and plain English would suffice given the math isn’t the point. Similarly, it would be inappropriate to use overly grandiloquent language if the writing wasn’t the point.
And 2), most engineers are not super comfortable with even relatively basic mathematical notation like this. If your audience is software engineers (and specifically not mathematicians), it’s better to say what you mean, in plain terms. While 80% of folks might know what you mean, it’s not worth losing the other 20%.
On the other hand, if the math is the point, then it is more than appropriate.
> most engineers are not super comfortable with even relatively basic mathematical notation like this.
I might be a bit out of date here. I can imagine how it could be true for bootcamp developers who never had relevant formal education, but I don't think they are a majority. Most engineers go through some kind of higher education program, be it CS or CE, and it normally includes a significant amount of math. How can you get around getting comfortable with it?
are we really at a point where “software developers should be competent in math” is a hot-take?!
If most engineers truly are not familiar with basic math notation, the solution should be to teach more math to engineers, not purposefully explain things in a less formalized way.
~~I KNOW I used the terms developer/engineer interchangeably, don’t kill me~~