[plt-scheme] Re: Why "lambda"?

2009/5/26 Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adelphi.edu>:
>
> On May 26, 2009, at 3:43 PM, wooks wrote:
>
>> On May 26, 8:22 pm, Noel Welsh <noelwe... at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> ... you either
>>> have to change the world or learn to read it. One of these is
>>> practical.
>>
>> I tend to go for a 3rd option. Put the textbook back on the shelf and
>> find one written in English.
>
> The problem with that is that English (like most natural human languages) is
> notoriously unclear and ambiguous, and mathematicians don't like things
> being unclear or ambiguous.  So they invent specialized symbols and terms
> that mean EXACTLY what they're defined to mean, no more and no less -- not
> in order to be unclear, but in order to be clear.

And then they go and use those same symbols for several different
purposes and it's ambiguous again, bringing us full circle. =)

Using Greek letters as well does reduce collisions, though.

    Henk