Mathematics and Software Engineering (was slide: useful function? )

[Markus.Schnell@infineon.com]

> > 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