I think it was a poor choice of example anyway - the code solution is superior because it is far more descriptive of what is happening. The math notation requires existing knowledge which without it, you're basically screwed in attempting to understanding what the hell it does. With code you can search for terms and see what they do, or even better, have an intelligent editor provide hyperlinks to definitions.

My personal opinion is that rather than trying to make programming more like math, we should make math more like programming - such that we stop assuming the reader has some magical knowledge needed to understand it.