On Feb 22, 2021, Ralph Cos wrote:
Notations intend to facilitate the depiction of technical facts. By agreeing to a set conventions (symbols, characters, abbreviations) we can shortcut lengthy descriptions. In our magic discipline new ideas or ideas in books or videos can thus be expressed in a concise manner.

A symbolic document gets you much better into the flow when you rehearse and iterate over the details of a matrix effect. A large number of actions are depicted at a glance. You can immediately step through many variations without having to rewind videos or reopen the books. I draw the anology to music notes, math symbols, engineering flowsheets, soccer or football tactic boards etc.

A symbolic notation complements books and videos.

I believe the benefit of a notation is evident. We probably all use notation the moment we make notes on paper using circles, arrows, numbers.

The advantage of using an app instead of paper and pencil is less pronounced. Digital formats can easily be edited, corrected, copy/pasted. The given, fixed and hardcoded set of features also helps to establish a uniform application of symbols, it helps to align within the community. The paper and pencil approach, on the other hand, gives you more freedom to express things in your own way - freestyle! Overall, we have seen a tendency towards the digital format over the last decades. These days, poets use Word, and poetry is often read on ebooks. Back to the magic notation, I personally prefer my digital documents over my old early hand drafted symbolic documents. I add touches, correct an imprecision, or change a colour. But I still like paper, and often print out the documents.

The pioneer of magic notation is - who else!? - Juan Tamariz and reading his "Symbolic Method" publication is an inspiring experience.