The dy / dx notation has a very deep meaning from differential geometry. With some other notational things, there is a deep reason behind it.

Other times, notation is bad and it is refactored. The thing is, mathematics by its very nature is a lot of highly coupled 'code bases'. So any time you try to refactor, you end up with sprawling rewrites or a boundary with some translation method.

This is different in coding because there is less coupling, and the translation methods (Foreign function interfaces / shims) can be automated.