Math: A bi-weekly journal describing the use of math in solving programming problems
This is just an introduction to the series. Basically, I've been challenged to point out various ways that I use math in order to solve programming problems and create business solutions. Now, thinking back over the past week, I constantly use math, but normally this results in simple arithmetic, counting, and some basic usage of sets. That isn't really a crowning endorsement to go out and study complex maths though if in 20,000 lines of code written each week only grade school techniques are required.
Over the course of a week, the majority of the code that I write currently is for a number of game engines soon to be released on G4. Lately, I've been working on the children's section of the site, and teaching kids that are already good at games, why they are good at games is the goal. That is going to give me a large number of commonly played miniature games to examine using math. And I definitely mean a lot. Of course games use a lot of math. In fact the original assertion was to leave out anything to do with path finding and collision detection. I could have given about 50 more areas I should stray from.
Another place I tend to use a lot of mathematics is in working with UI. Everything dealing with UI is math based from the layout and sizing of controls to the counless uses of functional interpolation in rendering shapes and other features. I've been living in Pov-Ray as well, so I should be able to point out where math comes in handy for creating things that we'd normally think are quite simple.
The remainder of the series will be related to hodge-podge items. I'll definitely throw some of the voodoo that is performance in there. I also use math for regular expressions, even if it does just come down to counting, so I"ll probably hit on a few of those. If I actually accomplish anything in artificial intelligence that isn't game related I'll toss that in as well.
The only stipulation is that none of the things I write about are made up. I have to be actively working on actual projects. That won't be a problem I can assure you. I'll try and keep the postings short and to the point, and I'll make sure to include the actual math with some pointers to MathWorld so you can check everything out. Well, see you 3 to 4 days from now (or maybe sooner, not sure yet).