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tristrambtoday at 10:25 AM2 repliesview on HN

"Principia Mathematica is an odd book, worth looking into from a historical point of view as well as a mathematical one. It was written around 1910, and mathematical logic was still then in its infancy, fresh from the transformation worked on it by Peano and Frege. The notation is somewhat obscure, because mathematical notation has evolved substantially since then. And many of the simple techniques that we now take for granted are absent. Like a poorly-written computer program, a lot of Principia Mathematica's bulk is repeated code, separate sections that say essentially the same things, because the authors haven't yet learned the techniques that would allow the sections to be combined into one."

- Mark Dominus (https://blog.plover.com/math/PM.html)


Replies

bazoom42today at 2:22 PM

Have someone refactored it into a more concise and modern version?

show 2 replies
danilafetoday at 1:41 PM

This was my first thought when I saw the article.