Re: Is CM important? (was: Use pragma I

[weyrich!orville@uunet.uu.net (Orville R. Weyrich)]

In article <20600112@inmet> bwhite@inmet.inmet.com writes:
>
>On Jul  8, 1991, mattel@auto-trol.com writes in response to Showalter's
>bleatings that we should drop calculus, algebra, FORTRAN and Ada from the

[lots of stuff deleted]

An excellent case is made for the importance of algebra and combinatorics.

>    o Most calculus books and courses spend most time with the relatively 
>      uninteresting notions of derivatives and integrals.  While these are
>      useful in physics and engineering, where things are continuous, they
>      are of less value to the kind of discrete systems we use.  However,
>      calculus is the only place people see the definitions of limit and
>      continuity, which definitions are very important.  Continuity is
>      important if you want fixed points.

How many quarters does it take to teach the concepts of limit and continuity?
A school I used to teach at required 3 or 4 quarters of calculus for its
CS majors. I argued in vain that one quarter of that calculus would be well
replaced by a quarter of symbolic logic (Philosophy 110).


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