What is mathematics, and why software is maths

Posted Jul 5, 2014 9:36 UTC (Sat) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
In reply to: What is mathematics, and why software is maths by neilbrown
Parent article: Software patents take a beating at the US Supreme Court

No. The difference is the abstraction.

Look at the computer program where the physical input can be water, voltage or magnetism, or anything else ... the "real" input is abstract.

And the cake, where sugar must be sugar. You can substitute different kinds of sugar, but not salt.

Cheers,
Wol

What is mathematics, and why software is maths

Posted Jul 6, 2014 9:53 UTC (Sun) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

Also, and I thought of this back then but didn't/coudn't work out how to word it - the input into a maths program is exact - as I said, it doesn't matter how it's represented, but it matters that 2 is 2 is 2.

Whereas, with the cake, if your measurements are a bit off, so what. Two large eggs, too smll eggs? The result is still a cake.

With a weather program, the result could be a tornado or a still sunny day ... where are those damn butterflies when you need them :-)

Cheers,
Wol