Your correction is a bit misguided.  Taken together, it's likely that Faxanadu was referring to three rather broad areas of mathematics, so it strikes me as facetious ("Ohhh nothing much, just nearly all of mathematics").  It sounds like you haven't taken any math above second-year university.  Calculus doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the field of Analysis.  Linear Algebra is the easiest and most well-understood part of Algebra (don't let it fool you, the "algebra" everyone learns in high school is entirely different from what mathematicians call algebra).

But you're right that Discrete is pretty darned important for programming and seems to be missing from the list.

I agree that it requires the same thinking but i dont agree with your last point.

Programming is nothing but a set of concepts and standards and undestanding these is fairly basic. Some poeple might argue that maths and physics is the same but i would disagree there or atleast i disagree that they easy to understand and apply practically.

However mathematics and physics carry a sort of stigma to it. Whereas programming for some reason doesnt, im not sure why but it makes it more accessible.

Then maybe you shouldnt do computer science but study something similar to what i am doing. As i understand it, if you do computer science at a traditional university physics and mathematics is required.

Whether you study them or not, good understanding of maths is a huge bonus in computer software and is part of what makes the difference between a mediocre and a good developer. Of course once again, it depends what kind of software you are developing...

As for the enjoyment part I have a hard time seeing how one can enjoy programming and hate maths at the same time. At the intellectual level they are very sinilar...

Hmm, perhaps you did not have the same Linear Algebra level as I have? Regardless, with a CS degree, you really shouldn't be taking many math classes above the 200 (or second year) level. I had 3 Calculus classes my first and second year, as well as 3 physics classes. My highest math class was 351 (or third year level) being Linear Algebra and 511 (senior level) which was a stats class for science majors.

I think you are misguiding him if you suggest that Linear Algebra is easier than high school Algebra.

But you are right, after re-reading it, it does seem that he may have been trying to be facetious/sarcastic with his reply and it went over my head at the time. :)

Logic is far more important in programming than math. You need to have a solid understanding of how an application should flow, how to manage data (not getting the same data multiple times, or using multiple database calls to get data you could in one call) and reusing code. Don't have 5 functions that do the same thing with slightly different parameters. Write one function that will handle all 5 different scenarios.

And for the love of god, comment your code.

I think we have already establised what kind of software he is talking about, and from that point maths and physics is definately not required. And by maths and physics i mean higher level university stuff (which is what he meant when he asked the question).

Next time try some reading comprehension.

I poninted out that to study that stuff you have to do all the high-level math stuff, such als Algebra (Linear), Analysis (the most evil stuff) and numerics (probably what you refer to as calculus?).

I'm a classically trained Computer Scientist and I have to say maths is necessary to some degree.

Basically it depends how deep you want to go in to the subject.

If you're maths is poor you may be better off sticking to some very high level languages which will hide the complexity of programming from you.

If you want to seriously become a coding guru then I think you may struggle.

Then again they say Paul McCartney wrote all his songs without being able to read music so more power to you !!!

Yes, yes, it went over my head at the time. Check my conversation above with someone that pointed it out. :)