I know C and I can use it to create some intermediate level programs! I can use sockets, pointers pretty well!

But I can not make a program to calculate prime numbers or anything that has to do with math! I am really down with math! Kids in my class can make that kind of stuff with math but they can't program at all! they are good with math, I am good with C! Some people tell me that I do not need math and i should go ahead and expand my knowledge in C and othnd others tell meers! I've done that and I am still learning C and I think it is easy and I am loving it! But when at school, I have to do a simple problem with numbers, I freeze! So why do people say that if you want to be good at Programming, you must be good at math! I am a living proof that what they say is not true

I know C and I can use it to create some intermediate level programs! I can use sockets, pointers pretty well!
umm.. unless you end up in writing games or some other sorts of simulations, chances are that you will not explicitly need maths when you have to deliver code.


having said that, I have myself been a strong proponent of knowing maths (And physics) for programmers. if you dont know math, you can often deliver good code to implement a solution that was basically designed by some one else. however, you will almost never know how to compare that with a different solution.


I personally like the designing of a solution as much as coding it.. so I favour learning basic math to be able to calculate the tradeoffs.
Reply:Good with C? great!





A good programmer, ideally gets an algorithm from some place, writes the program and it works just the way the algo works. End of story. This is how vast majority of application developers live.





When you get to serious programming work, such as scientific programming or OS or compiler or toolchain development, you are pretty much on your own. Nobody knows which algorithm works best. Algorithms are taken from math!!! They are pretty much written in a mix of math and a natural language. You will have to develop algorithms. That is to say, you have to speak the language of math!





Now, depending on which of these two programmer profiles suits you best, you can choose to flirt with math or just ignore it.
Reply:i was (and still am) bad at maths, but good at programming. so it's not true what they say :)





(and i have a good job as a C programmer.)





sometimes, when i don't understand something mathematical (i.e. an algorithm), i write a program (in C or python or perl) which implements the algorithm. and then i can understand it.
Reply:Some programming is about math. Some programming is about managing information. There is some overlap and knowing both is always helpful.
Reply:yep, i have the same sentiments.... they even told me that the rationale was that if your good at math, then your good at analysis... i really disagreed! but we have to agree that being good in math does have an advantage especially in writing complicated programs.