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Re: Sine, cosine?
Posted:
Aug 17, 1999 3:35 AM
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> Let A = {The set of all CDs having music by only one composer} and B =
> {The set of all composers}. Then define f:A->B to map all CDs having
> music by only one composer to that composer. It is trivial to verify
> that this is a function.
Right, it's a function, but I would say, not a math function. It could
easily be written as a function in a computer program.
> > programming functions often take strings, arrays, and many such other
> > things.
>
> Programming functions, OTOH, really are just moving around numbers.
> Strings, arrays, pointers, and so on are just collections of numbers in
> the right places.
But these numbers often represent something that are not numbers. In math,
the numbers really are only numbers.
> I think the most important distinction is that a
> programming "function" is really just an representation of an algorithm
> (which can be represented as a special case of a general function; see
> Knuth, _The Art of Computer Programming_, Vol. 1
Do you really expect me to go find that particular book? How much time do
you think I am investing into the difference between math and computer
functions? It satisfies me enough that you describe a function and label it
a math function and I think it makes more sense for it to be a computer
function and vise versa to say that the difference between math and computer
functions is a trivial one.
Loomis
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