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A comment on The language brain matters more for learning programming than the math brain. Parent comment

Re:The language brain matters more for learning programming ... by voidspark on Saturday May 03, 2025 @05:43PM (#43882592)
> The discussion started about whether human needs math skills to write code.

Writing code IS a math skill. When writing code you are writing logic in a formal system. Logic is mathematics.

You may be thinking that mathematics is just like doing arithmetic or solving equations. It is way deeper and broader than that.

> I still think that's not code, but your favourite model of code

Code is not just modelled through mathematics, it is actually defined by mathematics. It is fundamentally a mathematical construct, grounded in formal semantics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantics_(computer_science)

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Re:The language brain matters more for learning programming ... by GoblinSlayer on Sunday May 04, 2025 @03:15PM (#43888783)
That because mathematics doesn't need to match reality, so it's happy being ignorant about modelling? Anything you think is automatically true.
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Re:The language brain matters more for learning programming ... by voidspark on Sunday May 04, 2025 @03:33PM (#43888917)
You are missing the point.

Code is not modelled mathematically, it is defined mathematically.

It exists as an abstraction which is fully defined by operational semantics and denotational semantics, not modelled or approximated.

In the counter example of a quark, that exists in nature and is modelled by mathematics, but not defined by mathematics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantics_(computer_science)

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