> Typically we write that the solution is "x = –2". This to me is the most abusive form of usage for "=" in mathematics. The solution to the equation is –2.
I disagree, though I think it's fine to think of a bare “-2” as a solution when you have a single variable, when you deal with equations or systems of multiple variables it breaks down. Sure, you can think of the solution in terms of untagged tuples when the variables have conventional orderings, but that just highlights that the lack of tagging the variable with the value is a shorthand, not the “true” form of the solution. And it's as much a shorthand in the one-variable case.
Let me be more precise. Assume x+3 is an element of R[x] with x an indeterminate and R a ring with characteristic not equal to 3. Then x+3 defines a natural map from R to R. The equation x+3=1 is just a shorthand way of asking for the pre-image of this map.
In two variables we get a map from R^2 to R^2and solutions are ordered pairs. By definition of an element of a polynomial ring over R the variables are ordered.
I disagree, though I think it's fine to think of a bare “-2” as a solution when you have a single variable, when you deal with equations or systems of multiple variables it breaks down. Sure, you can think of the solution in terms of untagged tuples when the variables have conventional orderings, but that just highlights that the lack of tagging the variable with the value is a shorthand, not the “true” form of the solution. And it's as much a shorthand in the one-variable case.