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posted by martyb on Friday March 06 2020, @05:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the math-is-a-language-with-its-own-grammar-and-vocabulary dept.

I-Programmer runs a story [0] which says it might not be math chops, but language skills that make a good programmer.

This makes sense, at least to me. I'm a fair coder, and can certainly count, but would not consider my math skills to be high level. As a teenager, C.L. Dogson's Symbolic Logic/Game of Logic [1] was a great read, but wading through formulas and proofs has always made me feel like a 4 year old.

To each his own. For my main "Human" language - English - I'm a pretty good communicator, and that also reflects in the dozen or so coding "dialects" I've kept up with over the years. In basic training I was surprised to test very high at language skills when I absolutely detested spanish in high school (the teacher had something to do with it) and even after living with a German gal for quite some time now have only the rudiments of that language.

This story resonated because I agree with it, coming around to thinking a good thirty years ago that programming is more of a language than a math skill - just not specifically one for a "human" language.

I treat coding like writing a story, itself a variation of the scientific method: 1) first draft, 2 revise, 3 go to 2 until the screen's output matches what's in my head as closely as possible.

So, at least in my case, language skills being much better than math skills result in a fair ability to program.

The folks at Stack Overflow [2] had a long thread on a similar subject some time back. Soylentils, what do you think?

[0] https://www.i-programmer.info/news/99/13517.html
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_of_Logic
[2] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/157354/is-mathematics-necessary-for-programming


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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by janrinok on Friday March 06 2020, @08:06AM (2 children)

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 06 2020, @08:06AM (#967333) Journal
    I accept that not every story is of interest to everyone in our community - but why bother with a comment such as yours? If you have nothing intelligent to contribute - just shut up. The adults can then have a sensible discussion.
    Starting Score:    1  point
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       Touché=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Touché' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 06 2020, @08:58AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 06 2020, @08:58AM (#967343)

    if you think about it, most movies and comic books are just random collections of clichees.
    but some things stick with you.
    like when Michael Caine said "some people just want to watch the world burn".

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 06 2020, @11:25AM

    If you have nothing intelligent to contribute - just shut up.

    You must be new here.

    Sorry, couldn't help myself.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.