[thaumaturgy]

The other day I was surprised to learn that the equals sign was invented in 1557. I wondered what the hell everyone did in algebra before then, and it turned out that a lot of the earliest examples of algebra are essentially word problems.

By the time the equals sign was invented, it was commonplace to use the abbreviation "aeq." for equality, for "all equivalent (or equal) to".

But the equals sign turned out to be a really important development in mathematics, because it helped to visually distill mathematics down into just their number and equation components, without the visual noise of written words.

So I wouldn't be too quick to discount the value of good syntax. I've never personally cared much about it in the past, but looking at it from the point of view of the equals sign, it's probably fair to guess that syntax does a lot more for code clarity and readability than we think.

[sacado2]

Good point. Boole boosted logic the same way.

a ∧ (a → ¬b) → ¬b

is easier to reason with than

Socrates is a man, no man is immortal, therefore Socrate is not immortal.