[svat]

IMO your comment seems not to be addressing the point made in its parent comment. To make the point again with different words:

- Using long descriptive variable names would give them meaning, and make the particular equation/expression easier to understand or apply.

- Using short single-letter variable names allows you to forget the meaning of the variables and see the underlying structure, thus making the expression easier to connect to other situations (with completely unrelated meanings) that happen to have the same underlying structure. (The letters being meaningless, or at least not carrying their meaning so strongly, is a feature, not a bug.)

(See the highest-voted answer to https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/24241/why-do-mathem... for example.)

(Another way of seeing the distinction is whether you consider the equation to be the final result, to be used and applied, or as a starting point, to be manipulated further.)

[elbear]

Ok, that makes sense. Then maybe use single-letter variables for when working on something, and meaningful variable names for when publishing.

Edit: I realise, like someone mentioned in another comment, that sometimes you also want to make the pattern visible to readers.