Maxwell's Equations are an interesting analogy. As they were originally written, they were cumbersome and hard to understand. Along came Oliver Heaviside, who translated them into the notation of vector calculus, resulting in the form that remains in use today. But even the present form is not without its detractors, and I've read comments in this forum to the effect that a better notation would make them even less forbidding for students.
Algebra has a similar history too. You practically had to be a philosopher to understand algebra as described by Al-Khwarizmi's book -- there are no numerals or equations, just a wall of text. The notation of equations hadn't been invented yet. Today, thanks in part to gradual development of notation, we can teach algebra to schoolchildren.
I think there are probably many developments, where the brilliant invention, and the language that can be understood by the rest of us, had to come from two different people.
Algebra has a similar history too. You practically had to be a philosopher to understand algebra as described by Al-Khwarizmi's book -- there are no numerals or equations, just a wall of text. The notation of equations hadn't been invented yet. Today, thanks in part to gradual development of notation, we can teach algebra to schoolchildren.
I think there are probably many developments, where the brilliant invention, and the language that can be understood by the rest of us, had to come from two different people.