Gerald Jay Sussman: The Role of Programming (Dan Friedman's 60th Birthday)
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited for Sussman's argument that programs make ideas precise in a way standard math notation does not.
What it is
Gerald Jay Sussman speaks at Dan Friedman's 60th birthday celebration about how programming helps formulate and clarify ideas. He argues that ambiguous mathematical notation hinders understanding.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2022 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Cites hayley-patton · 2022-01 · on “In defense of complicated programming languages”
> But humans dislike, and much prefer infix with its complicated operator precedences Depends on what you're writing; Gerald Jay Sussman claims that edge cases in mathematical notation (and corner-cutting of sorts in what is written) makes physics quite hard to grasp in "The role of programming" [1]; hence the Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics book, which includes many Scheme programs which explicate everything. [1] [this video]
Cites Mathnerd314 · 2022-05 · on “Thinking in an array language”
I think he says that in every talk he gives. [LINK] , [this video] , [LINK] , etc. There's a 2002 paper where he uses the term: [LINK]
Cites leoc · 2024-12 · on “Derivatives don't always act like fractions (2021)”
Certainly Gerry Sussman's frustrations with ambiguous notation were a big reason for his decision to create SICM! [this video]