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/sci/ - Science & Math

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6743385 No.6743385 [Reply] [Original]

How far do I go in my study of mathematics if I want to be a competent programmer? Currently in calculus. Program requires that I go up to an introductory course in differential equations after finishing off calc. What are your experiences?

>> No.6743404

Algebra, beyond that it depends on what you want do be doing as a programmer(so you should research whatever you are interested in)

>> No.6743449

>>6743385

You should take linear algebra for sure, but there's no math beyond that which is strictly necessary.

>> No.6743454

>>6743385

calc
linear algebra
graph theory
geometry


wait you have to take diffE after you finish calculus? what is this?

>> No.6743460

>>6743449
Maybe you or another anon could clarify this for me. I'm an SE major currently taking discrete structures. So far, our professor hasn't really shown any applications discrete has to programming. Is it a course that is only applicable to one or two fields of programming, or is there some kind of general benefit it provides?

>> No.6743466

>>6743454
It was the same thing with me. My university's SE program requires calc 1-3, linear algebra, statistics, discrete structures and then differential equations. We also couldn't go into any of the other maths until we finished with calc.

>> No.6743482

If you want to be a javapythonkiddee and work with Srinivastarasta Parthasarathastary, then nothing.

If you want to be a serious programmer and change the world, you'll need a solid grasp of discrete math, graph theory, combinatorics, logic, and computability theory

>> No.6743487

>>6743449
I've heard that it's pretty vital to use linear algebra in designing social networking services like matchmaking

>> No.6743488

>>6743482
How change world as programmer, and what is graph theory applied in?

>> No.6743489

Numerical analysis, if that's in your math program instead of comp sci (as it is in some schools). From a programming perspective, those two were far and away the most useful courses I ever took. You need linear algebra and it's best to have some extra calculus.

Other algebra courses will also give you some insights into ways to make certain types of routines better... but your knowledge of a certain ring decomposition you learned in 4th year will come in handy maybe once or twice in your life, so it's hard to say if that's worth it.

>>6743454
>wait you have to take diffE after you finish calculus?
I've yet to see a school where that wasn't the case.

>> No.6743490

>>6743482
Why do you consider python a joke? Just curious. What are "serious" languages

>> No.6743500

>>6743490
python isn't intrinsically a joke (aside from being an interpreted language in practice, but we can turn a blind eye to that). It's just that it's so popular that it attracts our curry-eating friends toward it. Still better than Java of course.

Serious language are C and javascript.

>>6743488
The question is what ISN'T graph theory applied in. And the answer is "enterprisy GUIs that make you wish you were dead"

>> No.6743501

major in cs, minor in mathematics

>> No.6744058

>>6743385
> Program requires that I go up to an introductory course in differential equations after finishing off calc.
Dafuq? This basically has to be a case of the math department generating work for its postgrads.

You do not need calculus for programming in general. Even the most academic theoretical computer science doesn't require it.

The stuff that is relevant to CS in general is all discrete math, e.g. algebra, abstract algebra, formal logic (propositional, predicate, modal, temporal, ...), formal grammars (Chomsky hierarchy etc), set theory, combinatorics, models of computation (automata, lambda calculus, combinators, ...) and the like.

Other stuff is only required for specific domains.

E.g. the only time I needed calculus was for a computational geometry course which was a collaboration between the CS and engineering faculties. Primarily about CAD/CAM, so there was lots of stuff about surfaces and tangents and normals which revolves around differential calculus, and volume/mass which involves integration.

Computer graphics requires linear algebra, maybe calculus for tangents/normals to curves and surfaces.

We did some probability, mainly relating to modelling stochastic systems (e.g. MTBF etc).

>> No.6744085

>>6743500
> Serious language are C and javascript.
2/10.

C is useful in systems programming, but that's still more "trade school" than academia. It's largely been superseded by C++ and Java for application development.

JavaScript is something one guy designed on the back of an envelope then implemented in a week and a half without enough sleep.

In general, anything to do with the web is crap, the computing equivalent of bailing wire and duct tape. Partly because there's something about it that encourages people to run before they can walk, partly because of start-ups who have to ship by Friday because that's when the money runs out.

The only thing you can say in JavaScript's favour is that it's not PHP. It's no secret that PHP's author was no expert; but even so, this little factoid was a total "What the Absolute Fuck?" moment:

> PHP initially implemented its loops by fseek() in the source code.

Source: graydon2.dreamwidth.org/189377.html

>> No.6744086

Graph theory and computing?

Parser for compilers, regexp
Trees for Abstract data types
Complexity & Big O for optimizing and writing efficient algorithms
General graph theory algorithms in Networking, routing, flow
graphs dependency resolution
Again more trees in web crawling and filesystems
Graph traversals in garbage collection

more of the same shit in deadlock resolution, register optimization, resource sharing, basic AI, crypto

Compared to calculus, linear algebra or number theory, Graph theory/Discrete math is a billion times more important in programming/computing. I can't believe some CS majors do more calculus & linear algebra than they do Graph theory.

>> No.6744092

>>6743500
Python better than Java? In certain areas only, it's best advantage is cake-like or modular or whatever you wanna call it design. I like Java as far as intergration of OOP design principles are concerned.

>> No.6744097

>>6743488
State Charts, GUI and general representation of data.

I'm currently using it to work out some automated layouting algorithm for a Visio-like application.

>> No.6744102

>>6744086
Linear algebra is pretty cool when it comes to 3D representation of stuff (I mean more than just a cube moving in space. Like computational physics of liquids or smoke)

>> No.6744253

what math is useful for strong AI research?

please dont say statistics

>> No.6744277
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6744277

>>6744253
What math is useful for Relativity?
please don't say non-Euclidean geometry

AI is graphs, statistics, probability and formal logic & there's no way around those, numbskull.

>> No.6744316

>>6744277
Non-euclidean Geometry (sorry) and Dynamical Systems.

>> No.6745968

>>6743466
>university's SE program requires calc 1-3, linear algebra, statistics, discrete structures and then differential equations

dere ye go eh