[seul-edu] Programming Mathematics

[lp <prevettl@cochise.cc.az.us>]

A new section has been added to the math teachers guide
called "Programming Mathematics". 

http://math.cochise.cc.az.us/math/K12/teacher_guide/outline.html

Only bash, awk, bc, perl, python, tcl/tk are represented so far, 
but more will be included. Besides C, lisp, logo, scheme, java, 
javascript, php, etc., I want to include some simple math programs 
for the mathematical programming languages like octave, pari-gp, 
maxima, mupad, etc.

There is a link to several suggested programming problems for 
math. I don't have explanations for all of the topics yet,
but you can search the internet for "Egyptian Fractions",
for instance, to get info.

You may recall that the examples are not meant
to be optimal. The intent is to provide simple 
examples for syntax fundamentals like setting 
variables, math expressions, loops, print 
statements, file input/output, conditional 
statements, functions and subroutines to 
introduce math teachers to programming for 
solving math problems.

I want to thank all those who made contributions:
Roger Dingledine, Joseph Sloan, Odile Benassy, Jo Totland.
I especially want to thank Bob Techentin for setting up
a collaborative space on the web at the Tcl'ers Wiki 

http:// http://mini.net/cgi-bin/wikit/0.html

and the numerous members from comp.lang.tcl who made 
some pretty amazing contributions.

Bob, after seeing the results of the Wiki, several have
inquired about the possiblity of setting up a collaborative
site for their language. Wikit uses AOL Server (is that 
right?), you might want to start a new thread about
that. How hard is it to set up and maintain? Is there any 
collaborative software similar to Wikit that uses Apache? 

As ever, the new section conforms to the 'ugly but
useful' documentation standard. I ran everything through
"tidy" but if your browser is not rendering something
let me know. (Jo, I haven't been able to test konqueror
yet - did tidy fix the html?)

L. Prevett
Mathematics Instructor,
Cochise College, Sierra Vista, AZ, US
prevettl@cochise.cc.az.us