News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Donald Knuth's letter about teaching O notation in calcul... by Pioneer1 on Monday April 14, 2008 @06:10PM (#163544)
I agree with this. The same goes for physics as well. Both physics and calculus look like humongous legal code created by a bureaucracy. They were intended to solve 18th century problems. The idea of creating a new version of these from scratch is a good idea. Why not eliminate calculus altogether and teach computer science instead, including programming?
Re:Donald Knuth's letter about teaching O notation in calcul... by yummyfajitas on Monday April 14, 2008 @06:34PM (#163557)
Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Calculus is a fundamental topic, and even in computer science. Trig substitution is the bathwater. Curvature, tangent and normal are the baby, and they can be handy when you need them.