I see that in most colleges, Computer Sciences requires a lot of math and I was wondering if that was necessary? Do you need to take Calculus and higher-level math to be a good programmer?
Could someone not be so good at math and still be a good programmer?
Quote:Do you need to take Calculus and higher-level math to be a good programmer?
No.
Quote:Could someone not be so good at math and still be a good programmer?
Yes.
What do you mean by "good programmer"? It depends. Programming 3D graphics engines requires a high level of mathematical knowledge. Programming databases does not necessarily.
In my opinion, a good programmer is a problem solver. A good programmer understands computer science - logic, control flow, thinking abstractly - and applies that knowledge to solve a certain problem, regardless of any particular language. Computer science concepts aren't rooted in math, but many times you'll find yourself using at least rudimentary algebra when dealing with certain situations.
Often, the best way to organize objects you're working with is to use some kind of aggregate data structure, such as an array. Arrays are helpful because objects are stored sequentially and contiguously in memory, thus, locating a particular object in that structure is done "simply" by using basic algebra. Programming physics simulations, graphics editors and the like will of course use higher mathematical concepts.
The key, however, is to what degree you can apply the knowledge you have. Good programmers can figure out solutions to problems using the tools at hand. That's computer science. Learning calculus certainly opens up more doors as to what you can
do - A.I., for example - but I would say that a good programmer is one who understands that that higher knowledge is necessary.
In short - no, higher level math isn't necessary to being a good programmer (knowing higher level math won't automatically make you a good programmer, either), but if you want to do anything interesting with your programming skills, you should at least have a good foundation in algebra, trigonometry and geometry.
my computer science (computer programming) degree doesn't require any high level math classes, I suppose it depends on the degree plan but mine doesn't
Computer Science is much, much more than just "programming." You can be a decent programmer without much knowing a lot of math, but you won't get very far as a computer scientist.
But I wouldn't worry too much. Calculus is not nearly as scary as it sounds.
For Programming:
You need to be mathamaticly minded, but the actual qualification isn't nessesary.
It's a rule of thumb, if you can do honours maths, you should be able to do programming.
For Computer Science:
I'd say it is nessesary, because scientific computing is normally programming a computer to solve nasty maths problems via numerical methods. You have to understand WHAT your solving to write a program to do it.
But, if youre able to program you're probably able for honours maths, and they will teach you all the mathematics nessesary to be a computer-scientist in a scientific computing one...
matt
Dijkstra says this
"Programming is one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics; the poorer mathematicians had better remain pure mathematicians."
I think he's overdoing it a bit, but there are a lot of times when maths knowledge can come in handy.[/quote]
Quote:You need to be mathamaticly minded, but the actual qualification isn't nessesary.
No. You need to be
logically minded.
You should know your basic Elementary School math, and some Junior High math if you want to get into DirectX 3D programming. Of course, you would need to know C/C++ to do that, and then, you may give up or become bored and never finish the project due to the complexity of Window's API, which you can completely bypass by using FreeBASIC, but you would not be able to use DirectX, which requires the use of Windows API, even when ported, which to me, BASIC windows API looked even more complex...
Computer science theories are easier for people who have much experience in programming... like me...
Computer science classes, on the other hand.... :barf:
Quote:You should know your basic Elementary School math, and some Junior High math if you want to get into DirectX 3D programming. Of course, you would need to know C/C++ to do that, and then, you may give up or become bored and never finish the project due to the complexity of Window's API, which you can completely bypass by using FreeBASIC, but you would not be able to use DirectX, which requires the use of Windows API, even when ported, which to me, BASIC windows API looked even more complex...
So you use more math in C++/JAVA then in lets say FreeBasic, Python, PHP and MySQL?