I think a page on the wiki for maths tutorials is a great idea. I'm not a natural mathematician but i've had an unwitting amount of exposure to it after two maths a levels and a degree in physics :) so i'd be happy to contribute. As a developer, most of the maths I use these days is applied maths, such as newtonian mechanics, differential equations etc. I think main difference between what i was taught and what i use now is the environment - computers deal with absolute values such as pixel coordinates and screen draws, so everything has to be quantised (broken down into steps). for example, newtonian mechanics is great for programming games, but the main stumbling block i had was understanding how to apply these equations in a quantised world. For that reason alone i would advise anyone willing to gain some basic maths knowledge for use in programming to seek out literature aimed at that specific applied purpose, because heaven knows you don't want to learn any more of it than you have to! Some examples of what would be needed for certain tasks are:
Tweening - linear, quadratic and cubic equations
Real-world movement - Newtonian mechanics, differential equations
Zooming maps - Natural logarithms
3d - Matrix multipication and quaternions (arrgh!)
AI - Probability and statistics
Application interface development is what i'm up to at the moment, which hardly uses any maths at all. Instead, i would say you need an innate ability to visualise the links that describe how every component in an interface interacts with other components and the user in a coherent, ordered way. I'm not sure what discipline exists that can be applied to that, but i'm willing to take suggestions...
Rob
On 1/24/06, Mark Winterhalder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Share your thought if ur feeling to, you could end helping someone (me,
> for example!)
i wasn't particularly interested in math while i was in school (not
that i was particularly interested in anything...), and haven't
received any formal math education afterwards. but just as they always
said -- "learn it now, you'll never know when you might need it" -- i
noticed that at least some basic math is necessary when scripting
flash (percentage loaded, scaling an image to fit boundaries while
keeping the aspect ratio, ease in/out, that kind of stuff). later i
got interested in 3d, which was beyond what i had learned in school
(but what i should have learned, at least as far as vectors and matrix
operations are concerned).
i'm lucky that i never had any problems learning math skills i needed,
but i often struggle to find a resource that explains what i need in a
way i can understand. particularly the notation can be a problem. i
could learn it, but it always seems too much effort for the problem at
hand, even if it would be a time saver in the long run. i often find
it easier to look at example code, to read a text-based explanation,
work through a tutorial, or find a usenet FAQ (especially the "matrix
and quaternion faq" helped me a lot). sometimes it's not necessary to
understand operations in detail to apply them (quaternions, for
example). you should know what's possible, how to do it, and what the
pitfalls are, though.
generally, there is no reason to be afraid of math, and i believe
there is nothing one can't understand if it is presented in a way one
finds personally accessible.
maybe an osflash.org/math wiki entry would be a good idea. an FAQ
style collection of formulas and algorithms commonly asked for on
mailing lists, useful classes, good tutorials, FAQs and other
resources. odds are, if you find something difficult, somebody else
will, too.
mark
On 1/23/06, Marcelo de Moraes Serpa < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I often find myself struggling when it comes to math, even though
> through the time I managed to overcome many of my math-related limits.
> My high-school did not help at all to learn even the basics stuff of
> this onipresent science. I was forced to take the few elements I had and
> to learn everything myself. It may be a stupid question, but what do you
> do when you go into a problem that requires some math, in sum, math can
> solve everything and make your life easir - if you know how to use it. I
> find it an interesting question here mainly becouse of the graphics
> designers that, when developing in flash, had to face a "math challenge".
>
> Things like centering an element in the screen could get very
> complicated for me... x) recently I´ve been taking notes of all the
> patterns (formulas) I´ve found through codes, this helps me a lot.
>
> I was thinking about buying some books, but math is all about practice
> and I don´t have the time.
>
> Share your thought if ur feeling to, you could end helping someone (me,
> for example!)
>
> Marcelo.
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