[dmartinez]

I agree. The superscript example is a good one. In most contexts it refers to the exponent, but in the context of a cost function that minimizes a linear regression (for example), it indicates the index of the set.

Computer languages benefit from the fact that poorly designed syntax can be deprecated (not in all cases, e.g. C++) by introducing new features to the language.

Notation in math never advances in the same way for some reason.