• A computer will convert 2(4) to 2 x 4

    Only if that’s what the programmer has programmed it to do, which is unfortunately most programmers. The correct conversion is 2(4)=(2x4).

    in the 90s that if you had a fancy calculator with parentheses, you could fool it because it didn’t know about implicit association. Your calculator doesn’t know the difference between 2 x (2+2) and 2(2+2), but mathematicians do

    Actually it’s only in the 90’s that some calculators started getting it wrong - prior to that they all gave correct answers.