random question but in math papers do mathematicians define all of the syntax that they’re using and the axioms that they’re using and what all of the Greek letters mean?

because I feel like it would be really elegant and cool if they had the math equivalent of #include <standard_calculus.h> at the top of their papers or something, or like #include <physics_greek_letter_meanings.h> especially because Greek letters can often have multiple meanings

but meanwhile it’s not great IMO to just assume that your audience knows what you mean when you use a certain syntactic construct or Greek letter

@kasdeya I think recommended practice is to define stuff upon first appearance, although not everyone does. I do like the idea of a sort of standard header/universe for symbols though, like there are informal ones, but a formal (and specified) one would be awesome.

@Shivaekul ooh I’m really glad that that’s recommended practice. but yeah I think it would be so cool to have a website that you could link to, like

“this paper uses the lambda calculus standard syntax and semantics: https://math-standards.org/lambda-calculus”

and the website would explain what everything means

@kasdeya I got so excited until that link didn't resolve 😅

Cause 100%, absolutely. I would love to see more hyperfocused standards/knowledge share sites on the internet, I think that was one of the things that used to make it great.

@kasdeya from what we've seen, some things are defined not from the ground up but sufficiently that readers can be like "oh you mean that thing"

and there'll often be a section at the start describing what notation and typographical conventions they use. stuff like how they use bolding, italics, and various symbols

@transoptimal ohh, okay! that’s not too bad then, though I wish it were a little more explicit