Thanks for all replies. No one has cited an authority, but overwhelming
opinion is that capitalizing a function name as if it were text is not
good practice. Specific reasons against are that f(x) and F(x) are
often distinct but related functions (eg pdf and cdf), and Log(x) may
have a specific connotation. I'll quote just Adrian Baddeley and ask to
close the discussion as far as I'm concerned. My colleague has been
persuaded.
Allan
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Dear Allan,
I think you will find universal agreement with your position.
In some nitpicking mathematics textbooks, a capitalised version of the
function name refers to a particular 'branch' or a particular
restriction of a well-known function. For example sin(x) is the usual
sine function, and Sin(x) is the sine function restricted to the domain
[-pi/2,pi/2] so that Sin is a 1-1 function and the inverse Sin^(-1) is
well defined. I haven't seen this done with the natural logarithm, but
the complex analysis people frequently talk about different branches of
the (values of the) log function on the complex domain, and give them
names of this kind.
I agree with your comments about style. It is not usually considered
permissible to modify mathematical notation to suit syntactic/stylistic
convention. For example we carefully distinguish between variables named
m and M, so it would generally be unacceptable to introduce ambiguity by
capitalising 'm' in some contexts.
regards
Adrian Baddeley
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