Bug-octave Digest, Vol 36, Issue 26

[Javier Fernández]

bug-octave-request at octave.org wrote:
> 
> 
>> that computers always produce "correct" answers for any inputs.
> 
> Yeah, see my mini-rant in the other message about the ACM
> suggested curriculum.  sigh.  And Prof. Kahan's writings above.
> 

Moler was also concerned about maths teaching in contemporary curricula, 
if I didn't misinterpret the side remarks in the middle and at the end 
of this essay
http://www.mathworks.com/company/newsletters/news_notes/clevescorner/winter02_cleve.html
> Much of A&S is devoted to tables that we don't need anymore, except to check the results ... techniques used in hand computation over 50 years ago. There are too few people today who know how to write robust software for computing these functions.

> ...Fortran codes written 20 or 30 years ago by ... Cody and Amos are now retired. I hope we have people around today to fill their shoes.
> 

In the Dec'04 essay, Moler says that
> ...1979... CS237... I had the students use MATLAB for some of the homework. Half of the students in the class were from math and computer science, and they were not impressed by my new program. It was based on Fortran, it was not a particularly powerful programming language, and it did not represent current research work in numerical analysis.

I think it sounds similar to "Maths in sand" 4/49
> whose mathematical
> experience is too narrow to support sound
> judgments. Here is another domain where our
> failure to teach mathematics effectively to a
> past generation comes home to roost.
> I do not allege that mathematical education has
> failed entirely. For most, education succeeds as
> soon as they can follow a formula chosen for them
> by Experience or Authority.

I think I don't even line up with those who can follow :-), so I'm 
positively glad that there is a lot of people in the list who can 
explore and conquer. I like very much that page and the following. 
Coincidentally, he identifies Engineering students (well, those doing 
engineering and sciences assignments) as more receptive to this kind of 
subject. Moler also said that, just after the excerpt I pasted above.