The foundational aspects of Gauss's work on the hypergeometric, factorial and digamma functions (Q2457841)

The development of the modern notion of a function was discussed by many historians of mathematics, with the problem of the vibrating string (and the development of functions via trigonometric functions) playing a major role. In this article, the author studies Gauss's work on special functions from this point of view. He explains in detail how Gauss's notion of functions (and related notions like limits, convergence etc.) differed from those used by 18th century mathematicians like Euler.