ardis (05/10/82)
#N:uiucdcs:9100003:000:1116
uiucdcs!ardis May 10 09:52:00 1982
The objections to Dijkstra's claims that programming requires
a "mathematical inclination" seem to be founded on the premise that
such an inclination manifests itself only through pure mathematics.
This seems to me to be a very narrow-minded view of "mathematical
inclination." I have met many good students of computer science
with strong mathematical inclinations who did poorly in mathematics
courses. Often these students score very high on aptitude tests,
such as SATs and GREs. When asked about their mediocre performance
in mathematics they typically respond that they were bored by the
formalism. This may be a sign of laziness, but it is certainly no
evidence of disability.
On the other hand, I have seen very few good students of
computer science who had little or no mathematical inclination.
In fact, the worst students always seem to be the ones with no
experience or interest in formal methods. Their approach to
debugging is trial-and-error, because they have no patience for
analysis or systematic thought.
Mark Ardis, University of Illinois
(decvax!pur-ee!uiucdcs!ardis)