Subj : Re: Good math skills a requirement?
To   : comp.programming
From : Phlip
Date : Wed Aug 03 2005 11:38 pm

James C. wrote:

> This question is probably asked often, but can someone be a decent
> programmer without any advanced math skills? To be more specific, can
> someone get by in programming with simple arithmetic (i.e. addition,
> substraction, multiplication, and division)?

Yes. By "advanced math", people often mean trig and calculus.

> How in
> the heck is geometry, trig, calculus, etc. going to aid in this type of
> project?

High schools teach those due to education initiatives during the Cold War to 
support advanced weapons research.

> I don't see how a programmer would need anything beyond simple arithmetic
> to write an email client in a programming langauage such as Delphi.

You might not realize how much algebra, set theory, counting theory, 
geometric proofs, etc. you already understand to program loop statements and 
recursion. People bad at those don't typically make good programmers, 
regardless of their trig or calculus skills.

-- 
  Phlip
  http://www.greencheese.org/ZeekLand  <-- NOT a blog!!!

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