Re: Dumbing down?
- From: Tim X <timx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 25 May 2007 14:05:36 +1000
Ken Tilton <kennytilton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
Jeff Rollin wrote:
In the last episode, on Thursday 24 May 2007 21:00, Ken Tilton wrote:
Jeff Rollin wrote:
A friend (who should know better than I) and myself both agree that an
understanding of maths is necessary to be able to program.
So why do so many introductory textbooks insist that it isn't?
Sorry, point of information: you and your friend agreeing on X has
exactly what power over X's truth?
hth,kt
Heh. As I've already had to admit, that was a lousy metric to have started
out with.
A better question might be, "what are the arguments for and against a good
understanding of maths being necessary to programming?
The better question definitely is: where the h*ll do you (and a friend who
should know better than I) even /see/ maths in programming?!
Suppose I hack up a little finite state machine to help me come to grips with a
hairy little bit of functionality (IPC over a mechanism where either party can
be expected to go South at the most awkward of times). Is that math? Asking,
not arguing.
I think your on the right track. The extent to which maths skill makes you a
better programmer depends on what you consider maths to be and the domain you
program in. Some would say that to be a good programmer working with relational
databases you need a solid grasp of relational algebra and that might be
considered a mathematical skill. Others would argue its about modelling and
understanding entities and relationships and downplay the more theoretical
relational algebra perspective. If you were working in signal processing,
cryptography data compression etc, good math skills are probably essential.
However, if your writing web applications, a customer relationship management
system or a word processor, maths is probably less important.
In programming, I find skills from other areas are often extremely useful for
bringing new ideas into play. A friend of mine, who wasn't a programmer,
developed a really neat system for cracking DES encryption which was based on a
model of how liquids behave when heated and cooled. While there certainly was
considerable maths involved in this solution, the key was really his background
in physics.
The importance of maths in programming is less than it use to be, mainly due to
higher level and reliable libraries, languages and other abstractions that are
now available. I think there will always be areas of programming that require
good maths skills to be a good programmer, but there is a growing area in which
only minimal mathematical knowledge is necessary to produce good quality
software and a reduction in the need to understand the theoretical basis of the
tools being used.
A good grasp of methematics is a useful tool for a programmer and it is likely
to broaden the domain of problems you address. However, I don't think it is a
prerequisite for being a good programmer. Likewise, a good grasp of maths
doesn't make you a good programmer. The world simply isn't that black and
white.
Tim
--
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au
.
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- From: Jeff Rollin
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