…or should I say Easter?
Filed under: Easter, Math, algorithms
2007 3 August • 3.49pm 0
Where’s the Butterfly in your Code?
We’ve all heard of the proverb that a butterfly flapping its wings in China can cause a tsunami in North America. This butterfly effect can also be “felt” in programming. Small details such as language choices and its API implementations, and even the type of hardware your program runs on eventually adds up. As demonstrated in the second chapter of Spolsky’s Joel on Software, nonchalant implementation such as specifying hard-coded array sizes can eventually lead to bugs and unfortunately into exploits. Now my question is, if this is an all too important fundamental question that everyone building a software system should know, then why isn’t this explicitly taught in programming classes?
Filed under: Computer Science, agile and iterative, algorithms
2007 13 July • 11.53pm 0
Taking Out the Math in Computer Science
This should be somewhat old news by now, but an article from Slashdot last week stirred controversy about a book that tries to discredit math in its role in the field of computer science. From iTWire:
A new book seeks to demolish the concept that computer science is rooted in mathematics and, in particular that the notion of the algorithm is fundamental to computer science.
As some blogs have adequately responded, “[s]hould training of engineers include some Physics? My answer would be yes, but not to the degree as a student specialising to become a Physicist.” Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Computer Science, Math, academia, algorithms
