[plt-scheme] Project Euler

On May 3, 2007, at 5:53 PM, Marco Morazan wrote:

>
>
> On 5/3/07, Matthias Felleisen <matthias at ccs.neu.edu> wrote: I like  
> the problems -- from a math perspective. But as we have slowly
> figured out over 10 years, we have to be extremely careful making CS
> look like math. Everyone (ought to) knows that programming is a form
> of mathematics and good programming requires skills like those
> required for solving math problems. But somehow we need to hide this
> fact just long enough until the kids are sufficiently committed and
> will become industrial programmers :-).
>
> Of course some of us are there because we see the beauty in math and
> see how the math in programs executes. Apparently the majority of
> people is mathematically blind.
>
> -- Matthias
>
> Yes, indeed, the spirit of what you state is correct. However, are  
> you really claiming that persons/students that can write programs  
> are mathematically blind?


I didn't say anything like that. Indeed, I said the opposite. Read  
the post carefully.

> After all, programs are mathematical constructs (which happen to  
> execute) built by people. The building of programs requires some  
> mathematical understanding even if the writer does not realize it.  
> Perhaps, it is time to think of mathematics as programming. Now,  
> that would be a cool paradigm shift!

We have worked on this shift for 12 years. See "rebels with a cause"  
for example.

My first NSF proposal on TS!/PLT was "replacing mathematics with  
programming." You can imagine where that got me then

-- Matthias