No novice programmer—nay, not even a mathematician!—could comprehend such flabbergastery.

sounds like “no true scotsman” to me. funny how people that think math is a “pure” or perfect language (perhaps its close) are willing to throw logic out the window whenever it suits them. isnt logic as pure as math? or does it get “tainted” the moment it touches an application? im being cynical.

letters are symbols, words are symbols, all language is symbolic. i mean if you start talking as “symbols” in the context of language as just being what we call “punctuation” on a keyboard, youve already conflated a subset with a full set, in the name of purity and logic– and thus committed the fallacy of special pleading. the only pure math (yes, two can play at that game) is interdisciplinary, because an argument without context and and a premise, isnt really an argument. if that sounds hypocritical, heck, i did it on purpose.