A pixel is a picture element. An element of a picture. Hence the name... It turns out that thinking of them as little boxes arranged in rectangular grids is very useful. Because that is how computers deal with them. Not as point samples.
The article reminds me of the many mathematical text I've read insisting on that vectors are not tuples of numbers. That thinking of them as anything other than directions with magnitudes is wrong. Technically, that might be correct but vectors-as-numbers is much more useful when calculating with them. When you get into more abstract mathematics, and your vectors contain other kinds of algebraic objects, such as polynomials, you are already so accustomed with them that you can think of them as flying burritos if you like.
When I teach graphics programming, I will continue to tell students that pixels are like little boxes.
The article reminds me of the many mathematical text I've read insisting on that vectors are not tuples of numbers. That thinking of them as anything other than directions with magnitudes is wrong. Technically, that might be correct but vectors-as-numbers is much more useful when calculating with them. When you get into more abstract mathematics, and your vectors contain other kinds of algebraic objects, such as polynomials, you are already so accustomed with them that you can think of them as flying burritos if you like.
When I teach graphics programming, I will continue to tell students that pixels are like little boxes.