On Thu, 19 Mar 2009, Matt Barber wrote:
mm. When I was studying music theory we used to reserve "operation" for a function that was 1 to 1 and onto; I think that usage has been pretty standard in music theory since 1987, through the work of David Lewin. Music theorists often screw up standard math terms though, so I never know what to call anything in what company, and always suspect it will be meaningless/wrong... =o)
Yeah, it's a tough problem, and actually mathematicians don't say it as "operation" so often, and tends to use "operator" with some special connotations too (but nothing to do with 1-to-1 and onto). It's all a big mess. No way out but to be more verbose; or else, all agree to rely on a specific glossary for all that gets said on pd-list (which is not actually doable...).
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