From ehcho@eos.ncsu.edu Thu Feb 10 22:28:34 2000 Received: from uni02mr.unity.ncsu.edu (uni02mr.unity.ncsu.edu [152.1.1.165]) by uni02mh.unity.ncsu.edu (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id WAA08555 for ; Thu, 10 Feb 2000 22:28:34 -0500 (EST) Received: from default (1Cust44.tnt6.syracuse.ny.da.uu.net [63.21.205.44]) by uni02mr.unity.ncsu.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/UR01Feb99) with ESMTP id WAA01617; Thu, 10 Feb 2000 22:28:31 -0500 (EST) Reply-To: From: "Grace E.Cho" To: Cc: "Grace Cho (TextWise)" Subject: MA591K Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 22:36:48 -0800 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 X-UIDL: ae30aeafea345245a48b0e459ce7c991 Status: ORr Dr. Kaltofen, Here is what I promised to write to you. Since I am not sure how detailed and how long you want it to be, I will just write what I think about the course, and you can use as much or as little as you want. *************************************************************************** I believe the course "Programming Languages for Mathematicians" is unique in the sense that it IS a "programming language" course, but not exact a course to learn "how to write a (grammatically correct) program" in C/C++/Java. The reason why I decided to take this course is that I wanted to learn what those languages are about and how similar/different they are to/from other languages such as Fortran and Pascal. I think the course is ideal for students who have experiences in programming, but also easy to follow for students with little programming experience. The course provided just enough amount of the basic material about the languages so that some one with little programming experience can follow, but afterward we learn more about these languages have to offer, such as object-oriented programming style, use of templates, and feature for networking. The project assignments were also interesting in that some of them were seemingly simple but used a lot of the language features, and some were directly related to mathematics (solving linear systems - symbolically!). Before the semester started I was curious about how it could be possible to learn three languages in a single course, but at the end of the semester, I really had the feeling I learned most of the important things I wanted to learn about the languages in the course. I was very surprised to find a small number of students in this course, and I think it is a pity because the course is unique, useful, and interesting. I would strongly recommend the course "Programming Languages for Mathematician" to students in Mathematics and in related fields who are looking for a career in industries, or who are interested in teaching in an academic field where applied and computational mathematics is valued. *************************************************************************** I think I wrote way too much. As I said, please use just what you like to use. And feel free to correct my mistakes in English. If you need anything else, please let me know. Grace ===================================== Grace E.Cho Department of Mathematics NCSU, Box 8205 Raleigh, NC 27695-8205 USA ehcho@eos.ncsu.edu http://www4.ncsu.edu/~ehcho/home.html ===================================== From ehcho@eos.ncsu.edu Fri Feb 11 19:21:11 2000 Received: from uni02mr.unity.ncsu.edu (uni02mr.unity.ncsu.edu [152.1.1.165]) by uni02mh.unity.ncsu.edu (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id TAA00613 for ; Fri, 11 Feb 2000 19:21:11 -0500 (EST) Received: from default (1Cust93.tnt8.syracuse.ny.da.uu.net [63.15.156.93]) by uni02mr.unity.ncsu.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8/UR01Feb99) with ESMTP id TAA00326 for ; Fri, 11 Feb 2000 19:21:12 -0500 (EST) Reply-To: From: "Grace E.Cho" To: "Erich Kaltofen" Subject: RE: MA591K Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 19:29:34 -0800 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 In-Reply-To: <10002111256.ZM11395@unity.ncsu.edu> Importance: Normal X-UIDL: 4ad6d7c4236768e8211cdb0c637a1e39 Status: OR Dr. Kaltofen, The place I am working is called MNIS-TextWise Labs. Their projects and products are related to text analysis, decision marking systems, etc. Originally, I was referred to TextWise for a software engineer position, but after I had an interview with the director of the labs, he thought I might be a better person for a researcher position. What I ended up getting is a software engineer/researcher, which means they wanted me to be a research (because of my Math. background), who can also design and implement software. Of course, I am not that well qualified as a software engineer (most of software engineers there have long experiences), but they know that I have some programming experiences in Fortran and assembler, and --- here is where your course comes in --- the fact that I know basics about OOP and also know some things about C++ and Java, which are they main languages, helped me getting this job. My impression is that they know I will need to learn a lot more about programming in C++ and Java, but the basic knowledge (such as "what kind of language C++ and Java are" and "how do they differ from other languages" and "how do they (C++ and Java) differ form each either", and "how to complier programs written in these languages") was enough for them to hire me. But more importantly for me, just to be able to say that I took a class about these languages and that I know the basics meant a lot. I don't know exactly what your goal of the course is, but my reason taking the course was, first of all, I wanted to know what those languages are about, but also I was think about my future jobs --- and it worked! I didn't NEED to take any more courses, I didn't have much time because of finishing up my thesis, but I thought what good would it do if I wrote a nice thesis but ended up having no job. Dr. Meyer thought taking your course was an excellent idea and encouraged me to do so. If I may say, I think it would be nice if you could "advertise" your course not only to students but to faculty as well. Well, I ended up writing too much again. I hope this helps. Grace ===================================== Grace E.Cho Department of Mathematics NCSU, Box 8205 Raleigh, NC 27695-8205 USA ehcho@eos.ncsu.edu http://www4.ncsu.edu/~ehcho/home.html ===================================== -----Original Message----- >From: Erich Kaltofen [mailto:kaltofen@unity.ncsu.edu] Sent: Friday, February 11, 2000 9:56 AM To: ehcho@eos.ncsu.edu Subject: Re: MA591K Grace, Thank you very much for your comments, which are helpful to me. Carl Meyer has told me that the course gave you an advantage during your interview for your job. Can you tell me more about this? Again, thanks for your efforts. Erich