big list - What are the worst notations, in your opinion ?

A cute idea but for which I have yet to find supporters is D. G. Northcott's notation (used at least in [Northcott, D. G. A first course of homological algebra. Cambridge University Press, London, 1973. xi+206 pp. MR0323867) for maps in a commutative diagram, which consists in enumerating the names of the objects placed vertices along the way of the composition. Thus, if there only one map in sight from $M$ to $N$, he writes it simply $MN$, so we has formulas looking like

$$A'A(ABB'') = A'ABB'' = A'B'BB'' = 0.$$ He also writes maps on the right, so his $$xMN=0$$ means that the image of $x$ under the map from $M$ to $N$ is zero.

I would not say this is among the worst notations ever, though.

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