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Poll Poll

On a scale of 1 to 5 how important is math to programming? (based on your own opinion)

Only registered users are allowed to vote
5
26.19% (11)
4
45.24% (19)
3
21.43% (9)
2
2.38% (1)
1
4.76% (2)
42 votes cast

old Poll Programing and math

Ahmad
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Hello, so I have tried to learn Lua long time ago but I failed, I got bored reading tutorials even though I was excited to learn it and make my own scripts...
So now I'm thinking maybe its because I hate math so much and I'm generally bad at it?

Tell me what you think in comments.
and if you're good at Lua or any other programing language and you enjoy making scripts and programs I have two questions for you:
Do you like math, how much do you like it?
Are you good at it, how good are you?

old Re: Programing and math

iii
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If you need math, you need it ...
The chance is 4/5, in cs2d 3/5 imo

edit:
user Rainoth has written
I didn't get to see anything more complex than that.

Don't forget counting and for-loops, it is much too complicated...
edited 1×, last 25.07.13 10:39:56 pm

old Re: Programing and math

Rainoth
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Hating math is one factor to failure.

I enjoy scripting a lot, sometimes there's stuff that I just can't make, then I ask others to help so I basically need to be babysitted for now, however with every such problem, I tend to learn something new till eventually I can do good at that part of scripting. I enjoy it a lot but I don't enjoy maths. It's just a subject that I have to learn and do good.

My math level if you ask myself is above average but not good. When it comes to exams made by my country, I get the highest mark (but again it's just 9th and 10th grade) but when it comes to learning in school (my school has strengthened math and physics subjects) I learn at average (which varies from 7/10 to 8/10) so I can't really say that I'm good at it.

However if you're thinking about scripting in cs2d, it's more or less simple. Most parts where you need math are angle and distance calculation. I didn't get to see anything more complex than that.

old Re: Programing and math

Alpha Beta
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For lua scripting you don't need to be THAT good in math, you just have to be able to think logically and stuff.

But in more serious programming I'd say you do need it.

And yeah.. I luv math and never had problems with it.

old Re: Programing and math

Silent_Control
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In general, yes, because it helps you to think more abstractly and also aids algorithm performance. But it mostly depends on the specific branch: for example eigenvalues.
They have a role in Google's PageRank algorithm; the Markov chains (probabilistics), same as before. Another example is the weather forecasting. A numerical method used here is the predictor-corrector method, which is based on 2 other methods, the Adams-Bashforth and Adams-Moulton; each of them are used to integrate differential equations (math!).

Only those 2 examples have crossed my mind right now, but as a rule of thumb, it depends on what kind of programming you are up to.
My opinion is that you should know at least general discrete mathematics.

old Re: Programing and math

Lee
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I'm probably out of my place answering this since I'm not an expert in either, but it really depends on what you mean by math.

On the one hand, arithmetic and calculations typically isn't too useful since the entire point of programming is to automate this for you. This holds with few exceptions, unless you specialize in numerical analysis.

On the other hand, understanding properties of your problem is extremely useful. Attempting to do this formally is typically mathematical in nature: for example, formulating a problem as some structure and proving/reasoning about properties of those problems is great. It's often impossible to solve a large problem immediately, but once you gain some insight, you can formulate an approximation that may either be good enough or can lead you in the right direction.

When you say you're not good with math, you probably don't actually mean that; it's more likely that you just dislike mechanical arithmetic.

old Re: Programing and math

Yates
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I believe programming is more about the insight (Like Dark Soul said, thinking logically). Of course you need to be a little experienced in a scripting language to have the skill with which you can use your insight.
If you have a problem, and you don't know how to fix it by just thinking what the code basically is: scripting is not for you.

Of course you can ask other scripters to help you solve your problem, this is not bad at all. But if you can't let that go then I don't see why you would continue to learn scripting.
Just ask EngiN33R, or even Tobey. I used to spam them to help me, not any more.

Also maths is great, love it 10/10. I'd say it's just as important as English with CS2D Lua scripting. Which isn't that great.

old Re: Programing and math

ohaz
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It depends. For basic programming, the important thing is logic, not maths. But since both maths and programming require "logic", often people who are bad at maths fail at programming.

When you start developing anything that contains graphics (like games) you will need maths. Definitely. Especially matrix stuff.

old Re: Programing and math

Avo
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I agree with [BR]Yates and ohaz.

Programming requires logical thinking and smartness, not only math. But how would we imagine binary operations without math? Programming, logic and math are connected to each other, there's no way to learn programming without those another. For begginers the most important thing is to think logically, for advanced programmers - both logic and math(graphs, matrix, trigonometry and special operators like modulo).

I really like math (10/10), it's useful in many life situations, not only in programming and scripting.

old Re: Programing and math

oxytamine
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I'm very bad with math and still quite a good programmer and web-master. I've never needed hardcore mathematical algorithms in any of my projects, which are in Python, PHP & Ruby. Lua has such shitty syntax.

1/5 would not bang

old Re: Programing and math

mafia_man
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user oxytamine has written
I'm very bad with math and still quite a good programmer and web-master. I've never needed hardcore mathematical algorithms in any of my projects, which are in Python, PHP & Ruby. Lua has such shitty syntax.

1/5 would not bang

Same here.

old Re: Programing and math

DC
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You really don't need to be good at math to be a good programmer. Basic math (I'm talking about the basic arithmetic operations + - * /) is essential in programming but more complex stuff is not required in general. You only need it when doing certain stuff.

I think that most people who don't program are highly overrating math in programming. Probably because they don't know how programming actually is like. Typing crazy mathematical formulas is NOT what you are typically doing most of the time while programming.

old Re: Programing and math

Apache uwu
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Just my 2¢:

Programming is nothing without application.

Suppose you are hired to create a website for a bank, you must know how banks work (transactions, loans, rates, etc).

That's how the relationship with programming and math are joined. If you want to create a game with programming, programming is just a base line to create, it doesn't extend further than that, you need other skills to pile on top of it.

It highly depends on what you are making with programming. For DC, he would have needed way more knowledge than basic math.

"If you can't solve it, you can't program something to solve it", If you can't solve a math problem, I highly doubt you can make a program that solves it for you.

old Re: Programing and math

sixpack
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To sum up the entire topic, you don't need "Math" in software development, you need "Applied Mathematics", a part of math specifically tailored for applications in real life scenarios.

old Re: Programing and math

KimKat
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In my opinion math is just as important as not important (programmatically). The reason being that if you consider it more like a add-on for the specific programming language that you're working with you'd possibly more likely think of it more as added functionality for the program that you the programmer are trying to create.

Math is important usually when you're working with numbers. The typical use cases would be setting/getting the size and calculating/retrieving the length of a object or a string. For math to become important in code where you see no use of maths then it's not necessary, so when you feel the need of math then it'll become important. In code you would make use of math.random or similar stuff.

TLDR: It's equally as important to have math as it isn't.

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kkkkkkk
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it isn't required to be good at math to learn programming,

for example in some programming languages you don't need to spend your precious time in solving all the extremely complex calculations to get the final desired result,

you can rather use specific fuctions that allows you to do all these operations easily however you only need to give the exact values.

conclusion: there's no problem at learning programming if you are bad in math, if you understand the functioning of the language that you learn there will be certainly nothing to fear.

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Jawohl
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I'm ashamed to admit I cant do basic maths... And I'm in grade 10 (thanks to a place called TAFE... I can catch up)I'm very behind... Thankfully my English, art, IT, Especially history are more than making up for it... Il probably never be able to do programming... But at least I can do 3d modelling...

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Tobey
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Life has no limit.

If you didn't learn it earlier, it's no excuse why you shouldn't do it by now. Knowledge is not bringing you behind, it takes you forward. In different parts in life, people raise in places not because of their profession, but because of their knowledge in other branches. If you start not doing something you wanted to do actually, only because you don't know advanced math, you should learn advanced math beforehand.

Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. - William Shakespeare

old Re: Programing and math

Jawohl
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Very true- but i guess il be content with my history an IT
Id like to either a historian/history teacher a part of an iindi dev group as an artist, or try the stuff youtubers do with games... i doubt that...
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