On 11/11/2010 05:07 PM, Warp wrote:
> Invisible<voi### [at] devnull>  wrote:
>> 1. Commands have cryptic names like "*" or "+".
>
>    You might as well argue that math is cryptic because it uses notation
> like "1+2=3".

I'm sure you can find an ample supply of people who make precisely this 
argument.

Almost none of them are arguing that 1+2=3 is cryptic though. They're 
arguing about some equation with sums, limits, Greek and Hebrew letters, 
wonky arrows, funny hats on things, and abbreviations like "tan", "Gal" 
and "Arg".

The basics of mathematical notation are so ubiquitous throughout the 
Western world that nobody considers it cryptic. And it's no coincidence 
that most programming languages copy this notation - after all, 
everybody already knows what it does.

Anyone who's used a computer for a length of time is probably familiar 
with "*" as a wildcard character, so that's not too bad. It's the other 
characters which are less self-evident. (Plus the fact that "*" is 
actually a prefix operator, which I hadn't realised.)

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