On Sat, 16 Apr 2011 00:21:55 -0500, harrismh777 wrote: > software *is* mathematics
No it isn't. I might accept an argument that *algorithms* are mathematics, but software is not algorithms. Consider the difference between the mathematical concept of leverage and an actual physical lever. We wouldn't say that a physical machine "is" mathematics just because we can describe an idealized version of the machine in the language of mathematics. (If the machine is particularly simple -- you might be able to exactly simulate a lever in pure mathematics, but simulating, say, a nuclear bomb or a dialysis machine in mathematics is more of a challenge...) Likewise, we shouldn't try to pretend that an actual software implementation of an algorithm, written for an actual hardware machine, with all the complications and difficulties that entails, "is" mathematics just because we can hypothetically describe an idealized version of that algorithm in mathematics. We of all people, being programmers, should understand the practical difference between an algorithm in a book and the actual code needed to implement that algorithm, and not just gloss over the differences with a handwave and a confident assertion. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
