[Tutor] How different is math logic from computer logic?

Антон Мухин antonmuhin@rambler.ru
Mon Dec 9 03:48:02 2002


Hello, James!

It seems that you didn't reason correctly (at least formally):
'I pass math' really makes 'I work' false (given your statments). 
However, in this case you cannot deduce from 'If I work, I cannot 
study' is 'I study' true or false: 'If FALSE, then TRUE' and 'If 
FALSE, then FALSE' both true in traditional formal logic. This caveat 
of implication is a trditional source of misunderstanding of fromal 
logic.

Back to formal logic and computers. I think that all of computer 
languages use at least some part of loigc. Python operators like 
'and', 'not', 'or' all have meaning from logic, not from language. 
However, subset of logic used is usually rather small (no 
implications, etc). As it was said by Magnus, there are languages 
(e.g. Prolog) that use quite a lot of logical formal apparatus. Still 
you oughtn't to have Ph.D. in logic to be an excellent programmer :)

Regards,
Anton.