Do you think math people are the best programmers?
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In my experience, the far best programmers are people who studied electrical engineering, but took jobs as programmers. I think it has something to do with understanding logic and the inability to quickly "patch" their work... must be right when it is deployed. Some of the worst are CS majors.
Yeah i think so...but if you analyze the people who study electrical engineering are like maths people, in fact, electrical circuits are math representations and i think this type of problem improve the logic substantially.
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I see no correlation. People with different backgrounds approach problems differently, and that's fine. As long as logic is used, does it matter what the foundation of the logic is? I know math majors that don't code, and I don't think could never learn it. I also know people that have studied everything under the sun that are great programmers.
I agree, it would just focus their strengths, I would think. So if they're electrical engineers, maybe they focus more on the architectural aspects or on tinkering just until it works. Or maybe they like tests because they are used to working with things that are hard to fix once they're out in the wild. Maybe if they studied math, they focus more on the low-level optimizations or maybe they like to model systems before building them. And if they are CS majors, maybe they keep in mind big-O notation and avoid perfecting code when it does not change the big-O performance. That, of course, doesn't preclude each from performing tasks similar to the others, but it may on average reveal a trend of how each tends to work.
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MATHS surely? The subject is MathematicS, a plural.
--------------------------------- I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] English League Tables - Live
Dalek Dave wrote:
The subject is MathematicS, a plural.
It's also considered a singular noun, which is why folks say, “mathematics is my best subject” and not “mathematics are my best subject.” What about economics? Did you take an econ or econs class in college? It all depends on where you are from.
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In my experience, the far best programmers are people who studied electrical engineering, but took jobs as programmers. I think it has something to do with understanding logic and the inability to quickly "patch" their work... must be right when it is deployed. Some of the worst are CS majors.
Having a BSEE degree myself, I can explain why EEs tend to be better at it than others. A lot of us, especially software/firmware types, have to twiddle bits in assembly and get down to the true bare metal. We cut our teeth on that. So, when we move up to the other areas of programming like desktop and web apps, it is so much easier. I have also found that when you have to program without a nice IDE and lots of debugging tools like exist in and around Visual Studio, you tend to be a LOT more careful with what you are doing and typing.
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Hi, i have a theory...that is that people with math studies are the best in the programming field (if you don't trust me, check Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustup, Alan Kay, etc)...what is your opinions about this? Is convenient study math books instead of programming books?
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MATHS surely? The subject is MathematicS, a plural.
--------------------------------- I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] English League Tables - Live
I think it's a shame that you Brits have to break up mathematics into pieces. My experience is that it's all tied together in one broad subject area. So, do they give you several diplomas when you get a degree in mathematicS or just 1 diploma?
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Hi, i have a theory...that is that people with math studies are the best in the programming field (if you don't trust me, check Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustup, Alan Kay, etc)...what is your opinions about this? Is convenient study math books instead of programming books?
I went to Uni to study Maths and CS. At the end of the first year I realized that I was a lot, lot cr@ppier at maths than I had thought (and my exam results had previously suggested). I dropped the maths, and went to pure CS. I don't think I'm a bad programmer - I think I'm pretty good. I do know that I have never used more than one tenth of the mathematics I learnt in order to get on the Maths and CS course in the first place...
Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water
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MATHS surely? The subject is MathematicS, a plural.
--------------------------------- I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] English League Tables - Live
Dalek Dave wrote:
MathematicS, a plural
No, it's simply a word that ends in
s. Or at most a collective noun. -
MATHS surely? The subject is MathematicS, a plural.
--------------------------------- I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] English League Tables - Live
what's a mathematic?
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Hi, i have a theory...that is that people with math studies are the best in the programming field (if you don't trust me, check Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustup, Alan Kay, etc)...what is your opinions about this? Is convenient study math books instead of programming books?
Well you cherry picked a nice example there. Meanwhile in the real world, there are plenty of mathematicians who can't program (or not well) and plenty of good programmers who didn't study maths. I have a a different theory: people who would have made good programmers were likely to study maths before computer science as a separate study was invented. edit: with that I don't mean to say that all good programmers have studied CS, just that the more theoretical guys have a study of their own now.
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Hi, i have a theory...that is that people with math studies are the best in the programming field (if you don't trust me, check Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustup, Alan Kay, etc)...what is your opinions about this? Is convenient study math books instead of programming books?
You're theory is incorrect and I don't trust you: why would I? I don't know you. In any case, it's a simple matter to prove that mathematicians are the very worst programmers. Here is the proof: a = b a^2 = ab a^2 - b^2 = ab - b^2 (a - b)(a + b) = b(a - b) a + b = b b + b = b 2b = b 2 = 1 Since that proves that 2 = 1, which is plainly incorrect, it further proves that mathematicians are stupid, dull and boring people without a brain cell between them. Let me prove that as well... :-)
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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Hi, i have a theory...that is that people with math studies are the best in the programming field (if you don't trust me, check Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustup, Alan Kay, etc)...what is your opinions about this? Is convenient study math books instead of programming books?
No, I'm horrible at math. And I'm saddened that you didn't include Alan Turing in your list. Someone who is good at math may be better suited to some types of programming domain, but I doubt that such an animal would be superior at writing something like a hotel reservation system for instance.
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You're theory is incorrect and I don't trust you: why would I? I don't know you. In any case, it's a simple matter to prove that mathematicians are the very worst programmers. Here is the proof: a = b a^2 = ab a^2 - b^2 = ab - b^2 (a - b)(a + b) = b(a - b) a + b = b b + b = b 2b = b 2 = 1 Since that proves that 2 = 1, which is plainly incorrect, it further proves that mathematicians are stupid, dull and boring people without a brain cell between them. Let me prove that as well... :-)
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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You're theory is incorrect and I don't trust you: why would I? I don't know you. In any case, it's a simple matter to prove that mathematicians are the very worst programmers. Here is the proof: a = b a^2 = ab a^2 - b^2 = ab - b^2 (a - b)(a + b) = b(a - b) a + b = b b + b = b 2b = b 2 = 1 Since that proves that 2 = 1, which is plainly incorrect, it further proves that mathematicians are stupid, dull and boring people without a brain cell between them. Let me prove that as well... :-)
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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mark merrens wrote:
Since that proves that 2 = 1
Except you divided by zero to get the result (step 4, if a = b then a - b = 0), which is not a valid step.
Well, it wouldn't be amusing if it were correct, now would it?
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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Hi, i have a theory...that is that people with math studies are the best in the programming field (if you don't trust me, check Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustup, Alan Kay, etc)...what is your opinions about this? Is convenient study math books instead of programming books?
innuendoreplay wrote:
i have a theory...that is that people with math studies are the best in the programming field (if you don't trust me, check Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustup, Alan Kay, etc)...
I have a theory...looking at the superstars of any vocation says nothing at all about the general population participating in that vocation. I also have another theory...generalizations based on categorizations that are huge are probably always wrong because general probability theory as applied to humans (along with standard error ranges) will completely erase any real difference.
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Well, it wouldn't be amusing if it were correct, now would it?
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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Well, maybe i disagree when you mention that some people who know math can't code... i think in general cases that people who know math can code better than people who studio computer systems engineering (maybe because they know better the abstraction of the things).
innuendoreplay wrote:
people who know math can code better
Maybe in a purely mathematical situation (in Fortran perhaps), but probably not in an event-driven UI type of situation.
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Hi, i have a theory...that is that people with math studies are the best in the programming field (if you don't trust me, check Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustup, Alan Kay, etc)...what is your opinions about this? Is convenient study math books instead of programming books?
There was a lengthy discussion about the importance of maths to programmers some time ago. Here[^] Some interesting points raised in it, although from what I remember (that I was arguing) it was more about a mathematical mind than formal studying of the subject.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends. Shed Petition[^]
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Hi, i have a theory...that is that people with math studies are the best in the programming field (if you don't trust me, check Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustup, Alan Kay, etc)...what is your opinions about this? Is convenient study math books instead of programming books?
I have both EE and Math degrees and they have served me well for my 40+ year programming career - but I have done mostly embedded and real-time data capture / analysis. The EE degree has helped me understand the interaction between hardware and software and the Math degree has helped me to develop efficient algorithms that fit in small memory spaces with slow processors. I started off with DEC PDP-11 mini computers that had 32K of RAM (core) and < 20MHz clock in the mid '70s and my last project was using a TI uP with 32K (Flash + RAM) and 16MHz clock last month - 40 years and not that much has changed except the cost (PDP-11 > $50K, TI uP board < $100) :sigh: If I had gone the web or business applications route, neither would have been any help.
Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am
