YX-X=Y?

[Kafein]

MAN HAS RUN AND WOMAN HAS NOT BECAUSE MAN HAS BEEN GIVEN RUN AND WOMEN SMOKE FOOLS

[Leshma]

Well, I guess that means I don't know my math? Anyone who is a 'mathematician' knows what XY means. If you start typing XxY, then shit gets confusing. Is that X*X*Y, and you simply forgot to capitalize the second? Is it multiplication (X times Y)? Outside of programming languages, "*" is almost never used, simply because it is not actually a math symbol. If you try and type up any professional report using an asterisk, people will laugh at you, or if it is being submitted for grading, you will most certainly lose points. Same goes for using an x for multiplication. It is too easy to confuse with another variable. Therefore, the only acceptable forms of writing X times Y would be XY (or I suppose X(Y), although you rarely see that, since it could be confused as the function X of Y), or X dot Y. X dot Y may be used in the most 'professional' of reports, if only because it takes a lot more time to find the proper "dot" symbol unless you have a newer Microsoft Word program.

Tl;dr: You must have not met any true mathematicians, or you have only met some code junkies, since * is only acceptable in programming.

You call yourself mathematician but you don't use LaTeX...

[SixThumbs]

Arguing about math syntax and a bunch of pictures of bonus chromosome recipients.

All I see is asperger's.

[Christo]

GIVE MEN RUN

[Molly]

You call yourself mathematician but you don't use LaTeX...

That is actually a true statement.

I've yet to see someone entering a proper scientific paper and not using the standard Latex packages.
When it comes to math in a text, there is no way around Latex and its mighty capabilities.

...there are some hardcore Microsoft Office'ians I guess.

[Moncho]

I guess it depends on what area of maths you are speaking about. In group theory and most of the algebra I have encountered for example it is customary not to write the product sign it in most of the literature I have checked, maybe in other ones people write it.
And I have NEVER seen a case where YX stood for Y+X, even for abelian groups, where the + sign is used, it is written Y+X (and YX when using the multiplicative notation), it almost always is product or composition of functions.
If you are working with numbers, though, it is more used, to avoid confusion, but whenever it is clear, it is omitted.
x is not used often for multiplication because it usually denotes direct products, which can cause confusion, so * is the usual chosen symbolif there is one.
It depends on the context, and some people may want to use a convention or other, at the end of the day all it matters is that you are consistent and clear with what you mean.

And yeah, LaTeX takes a bit to get into, but afterwards it is such an amazing tool when writing any maths. If you do not use it, I highly recommend it.

[Jona]

You call yourself mathematician but you don't use LaTeX...

I am not a mathematician, but I am an engineer who writes many, many lab reports. Reports consist primarily of words, hence I use Microsoft Word for my reports. The few mathematical equations / derivations that need to be written can easily be done so using the 'equation' input in Word. In the past, yes, equations were a pain in the ass to do in Word. Nowadays it is much simpler.

[Molly]

I am not a mathematician, but I am an engineer who writes many, many lab reports. Reports consist primarily of words, hence I use Microsoft Word for my reports. The few mathematical equations / derivations that need to be written can easily be done so using the 'equation' input in Word. In the past, yes, equations were a pain in the ass to do in Word. Nowadays it is much simpler.

You obviously don't know Latex.

[Kafein]

I'd use Latex even to write a shopping list.

For me the whole point is that it's compiled, it's not WYSIWYG. Whenever I write something in tex code it does exactly what I want it to do and if I don't know what it does I can look on the web (and there's help for just about any possible question you might have). There's no ambiguity. Every time I had to use Word in the past I ran into an issue caused by the fact that you are not interacting directly with the stuff behind the scenes and you never know what you type actually does. Stupid example: creating and editing lists or tables in Word is a pain in the ass.