jackg (05/11/82)
Some of the responses I have seen on the network to Dijkstra's remark that programming is is really a branch of mathematics convince me that taking some mathematics in college doesn't mean that the taker has the slightest idea about what mathematics is all about. So no wonder that some of these people maintain that because programming doesn't often involve working out the solution to a differential equation or inverting a matrix or finding the roots of a polynomial, then programming isn't mathematical. After all, their notion of what mathematics is all about comes completely from the sort of excercises they found in homework assignments and examinations. A fun thing to do is to ask someone to define mathematics. Most definitions offered are unduly restrictive and put the concept of "number" at their core. This leaves out some of the neat branches such as topology and group theory. So what is mathematics? Bertrand Russell characterized mathematics as axiomatic logic. (I think he is responsible for the cutesy remark that mathematics is the branch of science where we don't know what we are talking about or whether what we say is true.) This isn't a very convenient definition if we are trying to decide if programming is (or should be) a branch of mathematics. Does anyone have a good definition of mathematics that can form the basis for discussion of what programming is? Net.math is probably the appropriate place to respond. Jack Gjovaag Tek Labs, Tektronix
davido (05/11/82)
Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own launguage and forthwith it is something entirely different. -Goethe