[Linux-aus] Re: High school computing texts

[Peter Miller]

On Wed, 2007-03-21 at 10:29 +1030, Glen Turner wrote:
> Joel wrote:
> 
> > Since when is binary arithmetic irrelevant? *smirk*
> 
> It's entirely irrelevant for a course named "software design
> and development".

2s complement arithmetic, yes.
Limits of numerical representation, no.

First example: student has written toy accounting package that only
tracks whole dollar amounts, in integers.  Student asks "how come when I
put $5 billion in my account, it says I've got $705 032 704 instead?"
Leads to useful discussion about limits of representation (2**31 < 5e9),
and sanity checking input.

Second example: student has written massively inefficient ray tracer
(all the necessary how-to is out there, these days).  Student asks "how
come my torus shadows itself on the *front* face?"  Leads to useful
discussion about numerical stability of analytic solutions (analytic
quartic solution not stable, mantissa is about 75% error bits).  But
numeric stability can be retro fitted with high-school maths:
Newton-Raphson can be used to double the significant digits in the
mantissa with each iteration.  And a pointer to Sturm sequences (not
analytic, does orders > 4, numerically stable, libre code) is warranted,
though any discussion of just *how* they work is definitely university
material, not high school.


You may have guessed, I think *some* discussion about digital arithemtic
is essential, even in high school.


Regards
Peter Miller <millerp at canb.auug.org.au>
/\/\*        http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~millerp/

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