On Tuesday 14 November 2006 09:24, M Harris wrote: > On Sunday 12 November 2006 14:26, Randall R Schulz wrote: > > > >> > Programmers are applied mathematicians. The basis of all > > > >> > software is mathematical logic of one sort or another. > > > >> > > > >> Grossly over stated. > > > > > > > >Not overstated in the slightest. It is exactly and completely > > > > true. > > No... > > Programmers are software text authors who rely upon an > underpinning of applied mathematics and hardware logic circuits... > this attempts to be partially and mostly true. > > Many software authors are neither applied (nor theoretical) > mathematicians... to the chargrin of several of us.
A person who has an innate talent for music and who taught herself to play instruments and compose and arrange tunes _does_ understand music theory even if she did not study it and does not know it explicitly as such. The same is true of programmers. If you can write a program that works, then you're a logician and an applied mathematician. It doesn't matter how you relate to your act of creation and authorship, if what you wrote was not coherent and correct, it wouldn't serve its intended purpose. The problem is that without that explicit understanding of the fundamentals, one is almost always quite limited in how much they can accomplish. Here the analogy with music breaks down, since music is somewhat closer to our universal human skills of language and hearing and movement. Programming and mathematics are more abstract and, for most people, harder to relate to everyday experience and hence are harder to get right. I cannot reconcile what you wrote here with what your wrote in the previous post: That programs are text and that by writing a program you've created patentable mechanisms. Randall Schulz --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
