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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Another mutated variant of the 'PowerPoint makes youdumb'
 Chiusano Joseph wrote: >Thinking back (less than 20 years ago), I believe I had the equivalent >of Calculus II in my senior year of high school. Why would a programmer >and/or modeler need to know anything beyond that (or even up to that), >if they were - say - a Java programmer working in an automotive domain? To add a bit to this conversation, I would like to say that when I went into programming in the first place, I did not have a high school math equivalent knowledge(I was 12 when I started ok). So it is clear to me that it is not necessary to have high math skills to be a programmer. However, it is clear that many math skills are used in programming (even if they don't actually use numbers). After my third failed attempt at Calculus, I quit trying, but I beefed up even more on my programming skills. In time, I took a Stats class that was using a lot of Calculus, and I actually did very well. In this case, good programming skills led to good math skills. I do agree with some others, however, that logic is a very important skill. I had this skill at age 12, and it is still one of my strongest skills. I have also found that creativity has been a very useful skill. My point is, there are often many different routes to the same end. One does not need to have excellent math skills to be a programmer. Chris Strolia-Davis Database Specialist Contractor - CDO Technologies Inc. -----Original Message----- From: Chiusano Joseph [mailto:chiusano_joseph@b...] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 9:21 AM To: rjm@z... Cc: bob@w...; xml-dev@l... Subject: Re: Another mutated variant of the 'PowerPoint makes youdumb' story <Quote> anyone working in modeling - which includes most programmers these days, must understand more than high school maths. </Quote> Thinking back (less than 20 years ago), I believe I had the equivalent of Calculus II in my senior year of high school. Why would a programmer and/or modeler need to know anything beyond that (or even up to that), if they were - say - a Java programmer working in an automotive domain? Kind Regards, Joe Chiusano Booz | Allen | Hamilton Strategy and Technology Consultants to the World Rick Marshall wrote: > > sorry, but i can't help myself here > > On Tue, 2004-01-06 at 05:23, Bob Wyman wrote: > > Michael Kay wrote: > > > Actually, the hard part of programming is the logic, > > Precisely! I get real tired of people assuming that > > programmers have to be mathematicians... It just isn't true. > programmers don't have to be mathematicians, and in fact many areas of > programming don't need mathematics. > > but most programmers need more a passing knowledge of maths. anyone > working in modeling - which includes most programmers these days, must > understand more than high school maths. > > anyone analysing financial results must know more than high school > maths. > > most of the papers referred to on this list use and require more than > high school maths to understand. > > what i might ask is the point of arguing about the significance of > complexity if we don't have clear definitions of these things - and > that's what mathematics gives us. > > but it's also true that most people's idea of mathematics is not what a > mathematician today would recognise (and i'm probably out of date as > well). > > > > > > although mathematicians tend to regard themselves as > > > the only people who understand logic, I have come across > > > linguists and lawyers who understand it just as well or better. > > Actually, until recently logic was almost exclusively taught > > and studied in philosophy departments and sometimes in law schools. > > (although when I took "Legal Reasoning" > > that would be an oxymoron ;) > > > back in the early 70's it was > > taught by the Philosophy Department.) It has only been in the last few > > decades (since the introduction of computers) that logic has entered > > into the curriculum of engineering schools and, I think, only since > > the mid-1800's that it has been studied heavily by mathematicians. > > that's not strictly true - the distinction between logic and mathematics > has only been recognised - and then logic as one aspect of mathematics - > since the 19th century - and that probably only applies to western > cultures. > > > > > bob wyman > > > > and could we really develop and use asn.1 without mathematics? > > > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > > The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an > > initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org> > > > > The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ > > > > To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription > > manager: <http://lists.xml.org/ob/adm.pl> > > > > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an > initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org> > > The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ > > To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription > manager: <http://lists.xml.org/ob/adm.pl> ----------------------------------------------------------------- The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org> The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription manager: <http://lists.xml.org/ob/adm.pl> 
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