Math is a fundamental used in many programming languages.
In a way, one could look at programming languages as supersets of math.
What's the harm?
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Sign up to join this communityMath is a fundamental used in many programming languages.
In a way, one could look at programming languages as supersets of math.
What's the harm?
In response to Arjan's suggestion, MathOverflow is really for professional mathematicians, and unless you already have a degree in math your questions are likely to be closed as off topic. In addition, since Stack Overflow is for programming questions, the only math questions that are relevant there are those dealing with programming.
However, there is a proposal in place for a mathematics SE site for regular people. I suggest you vote on that question to show your support, and hopefully it will be created as a StackExchange 2.0 site.
My approach has been to separate math questions into a few categories:
computerScience != programming
so, Not OKIt doesn't make sense to field purely mathematics-related questions because they happen to be a stumbling block to the programmer. They belong in a specialized forum for that purpose.
By your logic, I should be able to about physics and the behavior of gravity because it was part of the simulations I have written; how about talking about poker strategy when I was writing high-speed poker evaluators; we should talk about the stock market when I was writing some data mining applications. Or, let's talk about color theory because I wrote some photo manipulation software awhile back and I got stuck with those problems.
Mathematics is a field in and unto itself and not a topic of computer science or programming.
Let me guess: This question is related to this closed question on SO?
I'd argue that the closure is correct, partially because in the question, you explicitly state:
Note:
I'm not looking for programming-related algorithms here. I want to know if it is possible to represent this with pure mathematical functions alone.
That pretty much makes it not programming-related.
Moving past that, I consider myself a pretty decent programmer. I'm no rock star, and I'm definitely not egotistical enough to call myself "good." But I do my job, I do it well, I keep learning, and (as one should do) keep getting better.
I suck at math. Royally suck at math. As in, would likely have not gotten admitted to most reputable CS programs on account of how awful I am at it.
As others have said, math != programming. Not in any way, shape nor form. Yes, math is sometimes needed for certain applications of programming, but to say one is a subset (or superset) of the other is a fallacy. Thinking in terms of a Venn diagram, there is an intersection between the two -- but even that border zone, unless it requires code to get there, is inappropriate for Stack Overflow.
By your logic of letting anything related to developing a software program go, I could ask questions (these last two weeks alone) on:
Obviously, not a one of those topics is Stack Overflow material. Thus, neither is math, unless you need help converting your math into code.
Math is a fundamental used in many programming languages.
No, some forms of arithmetic evaluation are implemented in them.
In a way, one could look at programming languages as supersets of math.
Following from Turing et al, a subset, surely.
What's the harm?
Programming is basically not mathematics. I think of myself as a pretty good programmer, but as a rotten mathematician, when I think of myself as one at all. The two fields only really intersect because they happen to use some common notation.
Wouldn't that require the formatting options like used at MathOverflow?
(Beware: apparently, MathOverlow is only for very advanced, research-level questions by mathematicians.)
subsets
unless you take programming to be larger than math.