Linux Foundation Shares LinuxCon Highlights (linuxfoundation.org)

An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: The Linux Foundation held its "LinuxCon Europe" this week, "where developers, sys admins, architects and all types and levels of technical talent gather together under one roof for education, collaboration and problem-solving to further the Linux platform." They've now updated their web site with photos and slide presentations.

The 44 presentations included a talk about Linux kernel security subsystem by kernel developer James Morris and an interesting talk by GitHub's Carol Smith arguing that mandatory math requirements can create a "steep barrier to entry" for people trying to launch programming careers. Karsten Gerloff also described how Siemens is making "strategic" use of free software.

Comments

systemd is an acronym

[Anonymous Coward]

Satan you shall trust except maintaning data.

Captcha: bitwise

What?!

[Truekaiser]

Removing math from programing?
Is he/she serious? It's required to understand the functions and computer languages. Without it you can't properly make code!

Re: What?!

[johnsmithperson123]

Also, the math and physics are good weed out classes. Most people who don't get math and physics are not going to understand programming and computers either.

Re:What?!

[Dutch Gun]

Removing math from programing?
Is he/she serious? It's required to understand the functions and computer languages. Without it you can't properly make code!

I'd argue that any math beyond basic arithmetic and logic you require during programming is likely application-domain specific. Early programmers were mathematicians and physicists because they were using computers to solve hard math and physics programs. I've found that many programmers seem to have a really hard time separating the notion of programming itself from the applications which they are developing. There are no calculus problems I have to solve on a daily basis in order to write code. If I do use advanced math, it's for the benefit of the specific problem I'm trying to solve with my code - not a part of the coding process itself.

Computer science is more about the art and science of breaking large, complex problems into bite-sized tasks that can be solved piecemeal, which often requires an interesting mix of logical reasoning and creative puzzle-solving. I think understanding the classic patterns from the gang of four, fundamental data structures, and how computers work at both hardware and abstract levels are far more useful than classical mathematics to professional programmers. Many have suggested that formal logic courses would be more beneficial, which I could agree with, although I think most of that can be covered in early programming classes as well when dealing with boolean logic and bit-level math.

Personally, I almost never use Calculus-level math, but Linear Algebra and matrix math is crucial for 3D math (videogames). For others, perhaps business math and accounting would be more useful. For engineering specific software, you'd likely need more physics and advanced math. The level of math required tends to be entirely based on what type of programming you do.

Re:What?!

[Kjella]

Removing math from programing? Is he/she serious? It's required to understand the functions and computer languages. Without it you can't properly make code!

It is essential to some branches that go off in the CS direction, but unless you're implementing a math problem you often don't really need much algebra, geometry, trigonometry and so on. There's a lot of software that essentially does:

1. Receive data via GUI, message or service bus
2. Do lots of "trivial" workflows and business logic
3. Manage permissions, bad data, exceptions and errors
4. Produce and export results and reports

Maybe in fairy tale land this sounds like something that pretty much does itself via an "expert system" driven by a "rules engine" that you wire up without being a "real developer" but that's what most developers I've met do. They're not working on new HFT algorithms for Wall Street or search algorithms for Google or the next-gen audio/photo/video codec. Mostly is far more "trivial" systems like processing your bank transactions, insurance claims, e-tail orders or sending you the power bill. They tend to get ugly and complex, but not in the deep math sense.

Re:What?!

[ColonelZen]

Look at the slides. She's bitchnig about a requirement for *algebra*. Now yes I've only used calculus perhaps half a dozen times in thirty plus years of business programming. But *algebra*? I've wound up many times setting up (relatively simple, true) sets of linear equations to balance allocations of money in purely financial applications. In a couple cases I could use the linear equations to see at a glance what information I needed to finish the program, and in others to take back to the biz people to show why what they were asking for was not possible. Er. do trend analysis on space usages across multiple data spaces and multiple volume-groups across a large database and tell me you don't need algebra to do it. And for that matter programming is becoming ever more future oriented .... You may only need algebra to tell where you've been, but you DO need (at least basic) calculus to anticipate the future. -- TWZ

Re: What?!

[Hognoxious]

Also, the math and physics are good weed out classes.

Anything hard is a good weed out class.

That doesn't necessarily make it a valid one.

Most people who don't get math and physics are not going to understand programming and computers either.

Right, because 99% of programmers work on atmospheric modeling, logistics optimisation & ballistics calculations.

Oh hang on, they don't. They write stock control and accounting systems with VB for companies that are too big for Excel and too small for SAP, using little maths beyond addition, subtraction & multiplication.

Re:What?!

[Hognoxious]

You really think that all it takes to convert the average soccer mom from third most dangerous thing on the road to perfect driver is a physics class?