There's too much mathematics in it, I'm only an engineer... ;-)
Perhaps I should rephrase:
There's too much mathematics in it, I'm not a mathematician
reminds of what I think is one of the biggest problems with conventional software development: the lack of appreciable mathematics in the specification, design, coding, or implementation of programs. In this
While this is surely true, I think, there is also a lack of communication between software engineers. Civil, Mechanical or Electrical Engineers have well-established plans, while software engineers have not (see http://fmc.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/). One should not forget, that many practical problems are not solvable by a rigorous mathematical approach. German reading people may have a look at http://fmc.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/research/literature/wendt_1998-kommunikationsp roblem_der_informatiker.pdf, where some problems are pointed out (with an edge to it).
sense there is a huge contrast between conventional software development practice and other engineering disciplines.
Definitely. But software development is probably not old enough... It's like the difference between somebody bying some Radio Shack stuff and putting it together until it works, and an engineer making informed decisions for layout and choice of elements for a circuit. This informedness relies partly on mathematics, but at least as much on experience and pragmatics. Most software people are still bying Radio Shack stuff... (and isn't it easy?)
I was once an electrical engineer, and I used lots of mathematics (not just in school, but in industry), and I know that most other engineering disciplines also use a
So you know that to use diracs and fourier you don't necessarily need to understand what functionals are about. Likewise, it's not necessary to understand category theory to use monads and the like.
lot of mathematics. One of the things I like about FP is that it demands more mathematical sophistication of its practitioners, which, contrary to some opinions, I think is a Good Thing.
I'm fully with you there, but - as someone already pointed out - I don't want to need a math major to read a paper regarding programming. This doesn't mean there is something wrong with these papers, it's just that I wished there would be more accessible versions. Hope to got my point across, Markus -- Markus Schnell, Infineon Technologies AG