tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (Computer Science on Mathoverflow) Sun, 04 Nov 2018 13:39:35 -0800 http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/ Lussumo Vanilla 1.1.9 & Feed Publisher grp comments on "Computer Science on Mathoverflow" (3987) http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3987#Comment_3987 http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3987#Comment_3987 Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:52:31 -0700 grp
Gerhard "Ask Me About System Design" Paseman, 2010.03.22 ]]>
Harry Gindi comments on "Computer Science on Mathoverflow" (3986) http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3986#Comment_3986 http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3986#Comment_3986 Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:47:43 -0700 Harry Gindi grp comments on "Computer Science on Mathoverflow" (3983) http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3983#Comment_3983 http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3983#Comment_3983 Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:26:06 -0700 grp
- Where can I find generalizations of the pumping Lemma?
-> Redirect to abcpedia and such-and-such's online notes. Also XYZ search once listed the following source...
- I am reading through Knuth's fascicle on compiler-compiler generation and don't understand how MMIX optimization is prefered to x86 architecture optimization for automatically generating good code generators. Can you also explain why the 68000 series isn't considered?
-> Redirect to the MMIX and 68000 users groups and their mailing lists; alternatively consider asking the question on OperationsResearchOverflow-Compilersection. (hyperlink to their question page)
- I am looking at automatic test pattern generation for a class of logic circuits based on tristate logic, except that I have access to k points in the circuit where I can measure voltage. What algorithm do I use to help me choose the k points?
-> Redirect to USENET newsgroups comp.engineering and comp.atpg. Also Prof. Blah is accepting correspondence at the following website...

That way, that portion of the community that cares about that portion of mathematics (science) can provide useful alternatives. Math Overflow does this on a per question basis, but I am suggesting stepping it to the next level, as in the following:

One thing that would be a "killer app" type of enhancement to the question sidebar would be a collection of lists of resources, one list for each discpline, and the sidebar would provide a link to those lists corresponding to the disciplines to which the question belonged.

Gerhard "Ask Me About System Design" Paseman, 2010.03.22 ]]>
Anton Geraschenko comments on "Computer Science on Mathoverflow" (3537) http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3537#Comment_3537 http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3537#Comment_3537 Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:32:39 -0800 Anton Geraschenko I don't really see a meaningful difference between CS theory and mathematics. MO currently doesn't have much in the way of algorithms and complexity theory, but I see no reason it shouldn't. It currently has even less of a differential equations community, but that's not because "pdes aren't really math" or anything silly like that. My understanding of computer science is that it is not a discipline to which mathematics can be applied, but a branch of mathematics which can be applied to computer programming. Lots of CS people are interested in other areas of math, and lots of mathematicians are interested in theoretical CS. In case I'm way off the mark, let me explain a bit about how I think SE-like communities should work.

There are two competing forces that we have to strike a balance between:

  1. It's good to be pretty specific. That way the people who visit the site have a good reason to visit it. They don't have to dig through a long list of questions to find something they're interested in, so the site is actually usable.
  2. It's good to be pretty broad. When somebody comes to MO, they should get to ask and answer detailed technical questions in their area, but they should also have their curiosity piqued by questions in tangentially related areas. It's fun to see what people in other fields think about, and it's awesome when it turns out that somebody in a different field has exactly the right tools to solve your problem. Breadth of topic makes MO more fun and more valuable.

I think (2) is strong enough that we should shoot to be as inclusive as possible so long as we don't end up with a fragmented community. The situation we want to avoid is having two or more essentially non-interacting sub-communities on a single site. They would just annoy each other since they'd have to go to the trouble of filtering out what they want to see. The communities would be much better served by separate sites. Let me add a couple of clarifying points in anticipation of misinterpretation:

  • "But the MO community is already fragmented; I'm mostly only interested in combinatorics and I'm never going to read algebraic geometry questions." It's true that individuals are going to have some things that they're really interested in and some things that they're not interested in at all. That's why we have interested and ignored tags. The point is that there are enough people interested in both combinatorics and algebraic geometry that the benefit they get out of having both in one place outweighs your irritation at all the algebraic geometry questions. True fragmentation of the community would be a situation where the "common interest graph" can be cut into nearly disconnected components. Not having every person interested in every topic doesn't count as fragmentation.
  • "But you don't allow vague questions, even though people are interested in them." Part of the reason for that is that the Q&A format and the SE platform is bad for vague questions; see my other posts on the issue for more detail. But I would also argue that the me who is interested in posing and solving focused problems should be treated as a different person from the me who is interested in having a discussion about some vague or philosophical stuff. Of all the things I'm interested in, I'm not interested in all of them at the same time, and me in one mood may be thoroughly annoyed with me in another mood. From this point of view, I think mathematicians in the mood to solve focused problems and mathematicians in the mood to chat philosophically constitute fragmentation of the community. But that's okay; it just means that you should have separate sites for the two moods. Just because you really like to be on MO sometimes doesn't mean that you have to satisfy all of your interests on MO.

In the case of computer science, I think CS people should experiment. For questions related to programming (e.g. any question that involves a specific language), ask and answer them on SO. For theoretical questions that you could classify as research/graduate level, ask and answer them on MO. If it turns out that people at SO and MO are happy to have those questions and this covers most of your field, great! It means that you only have two websites to keep an eye on, you get the advantage of a large number of eyeballs, and you make SO and MO better. If it turns out that people at SO or MO don't like it, or that you have questions that don't really belong on either one, then it may be worth the hassle of creating and running CSOverflow.

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Suresh Venkat comments on "Computer Science on Mathoverflow" (3531) http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3531#Comment_3531 http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3531#Comment_3531 Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:19:18 -0800 Suresh Venkat Tom Leinster comments on "Computer Science on Mathoverflow" (3527) http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3527#Comment_3527 http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3527#Comment_3527 Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:05:14 -0800 Tom Leinster I don't think we should treat computer science differently from any other discipline to which mathematics can be applied (physics, biology, ...). We currently don't have much applied math on the site, but I'm all for encouraging it.

Of course, there's a continuum that runs from pure mathematics to hardcore computer science, with theoretical/mathematical computer science lying in between. There's no obvious place to draw the line. If we do manage to attract more applied mathematicians, we'll have to fine-tune our instincts as to which questions to allow or encourage and which to declare to be outside the site's remit. But that's OK; there have already been several issues on which the community's had to feel its way.

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Anweshi comments on "Computer Science on Mathoverflow" (3525) http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3525#Comment_3525 http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3525#Comment_3525 Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:53:09 -0800 Anweshi What CSiegel says might work for the moment. But from the longer perspective this is not enough. Eventually there should be another site for CS. Most universities think that math and CS are different, in fact different enough to make them into different departments. So as the number of stack exchange sites grows, one day there should be a CS site also.

Afterwards, there will be a natural overlap of questions between the math site and CS sites, which is fine, and which is exactly as things stand among published papers in the two subjects.

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CSiegel comments on "Computer Science on Mathoverflow" (3524) http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3524#Comment_3524 http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3524#Comment_3524 Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:37:14 -0800 CSiegel Grigory comments on "Computer Science on Mathoverflow" (3519) http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3519#Comment_3519 http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/257/computer-science-on-mathoverflow/?Focus=3519#Comment_3519 Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:42:24 -0800 Grigory