Stewart,
There's a joke that goes something like this: there are three
kinds of people in this world - those that are good at Math and those
that are not.
Funny thing is that there are at least three ways in which
people approach mathematical expressions:
1) Some see a nice, clean, symbolic expression and mentally reject it
out of hand (for these people, a "summation symbol" terminates a
line of readable text);
2) Some see a symbolic expression, look at it briefly and become (as
one person said earlier about figures) convinced they understand
it while actually they do not (this can be established by a simple
search for published material in which non-sensical mathematical
expressions were included without comment in peer reviews);
3) Some people see any symbolic expression and play with it until
either they understand it or they know what is wrong with it.
In the first two cases - in which, I think we can agree, most people
would fall - it is much better to have made the effort to put the
expression in "plain English" - however much prettier it would have
been in symbolic representation.
--
Eric
--> -----Original Message-----
--> From: ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
[mailto:ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org]
--> On Behalf Of Stewart Bryant
--> Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 2:22 PM
--> To: Bob Braden
--> Cc: harald(_at_)alvestrand(_dot_)no; hartmans-ietf(_at_)mit(_dot_)edu;
--> ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org; sbrim(_at_)cisco(_dot_)com
--> Subject: Re: Normative figures
-->
--> Bob Braden wrote:
-->
--> > *>
--> > *> Normative figures perhaps. Normative equations definitely.
--> >
--> >Scott,
--> >
--> >How about Sections 4.2.3.3 and 4.2.3.4 of RFC 1122 (1889),
--> for examples
--> >of readable equations in ASCII? I my experience,
--> normative protocol
--> >technical specifications rarely need equations much more
--> complex than
--> >these examples. The only significant exception I can
--> think of is the
--> >NTP spec.
--> >
--> >People who REALLY use equations generally prefer LaTeX.
--> >
--> >Bob Braden
--> >
--> >
--> >
--> >
--> The draft has expired so I need to point to an external
--> version. This draft
--> which is looking at the properties of a routing network
--> under conditions of
--> failure would have been much clearer if it could have used
--> mathematical
--> notation rather than ASCIIised equations
-->
--> http://www.faqs.org/ftp/pub/internet-drafts/draft-atlas-ip-l
--> ocal-protect-uturn-02.txt
-->
--> Of course the diagrams could have also been clearer, as is seen by
--> comparing them to the ones that Alia used in her presentatons on the
--> subject.
-->
--> - Stewart
-->
-->
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