That makes me feel really sad. My epiphany was your iron curtain coming down.
I can see how. In fact I had the same reaction initially (and my parents are graduates, but they don't know the first thing about maths, so they were no help to me either).
I have no idea why I wrote the program to plot a circle that made it obvious what sin and cos were.
In fact I think I might have misremembered my own story. I had a ZX81 first, and I don't think that had a circle function, so it may be that the ZX81 manual explained how you could use SIN and COS to do that.
But I think we can agree that google and wikipedia are wonderful things. The upcoming generations of programmers and mathematicians are going to be Gods. How could they not be with a library like that!
In fact I think I might have misremembered my own story. I had a ZX81 first...
I think you're correct here. I had a ZX81 first too (then various Spectrums, a VIC-20, and a Dragon 32!) and I also seem to remember the ZX81 manual telling you how to draw straight lines first, with FOR loops, and then progressing to circles.
The upcoming generations of programmers and mathematicians are going to be Gods.
Google and Wikipedia are awesome. I would have had my head buried in them all day if they had existed when I was a kid.
But I do worry a little about the next generation of programmers. Whenever a mum asks me what to recommend for her kid, who's fanatical about computers and just wants to dive in and write some games, I'm really at a bit of a loss for something to suggest. I usually go with Python, but it sucks to know that the kid in question is going to have to do some extra work to get things like graphics and audio going.
Not just LOLCAT, DailyWTF, etc. but also HN, Slashdot, etc. Not just I waste a lot of time reading the articles, I probably waste more on reading the comments... while keep delaying work at hand.
Oh don't be sad. I'm overdramatizing, there's really no way to be sure that I would have continued programming if I had got past that hurdle. Or I might even not have enjoyed it. Maybe I needed to see the ugliness of economics very closely before I could really appreciate the beauty of programming.
Luckily the internet bubble came along just at the right moment, made it really easy to become a programmer on the job and now everything is fine.
I can see how. In fact I had the same reaction initially (and my parents are graduates, but they don't know the first thing about maths, so they were no help to me either).
I have no idea why I wrote the program to plot a circle that made it obvious what sin and cos were.
In fact I think I might have misremembered my own story. I had a ZX81 first, and I don't think that had a circle function, so it may be that the ZX81 manual explained how you could use SIN and COS to do that.
But I think we can agree that google and wikipedia are wonderful things. The upcoming generations of programmers and mathematicians are going to be Gods. How could they not be with a library like that!