Mathematics and Software Development

Programming a computer is the act of building up a large number of instructions for a machine to follow based on ‘primitive’ operations and underlying libraries. These instructions or ‘algorithms’ are always computed rigorously, which is occasionally not what we intended. Thus ‘bugs’ may interfere with the user’s objectives, but they will not harm the machine itself (although they can occasionally damage peripherals). The machine is simply following the steps that it was told in a deterministic manner.

Underneath, the computer manipulates ‘data’, which itself has to fit to a predefined format. Data stored in a computer is a symbolic placeholder for things that exist in the real world. It doesn’t really exist, but it can be used to track and analyse the world around us.

As such software can be viewed as a ‘system’, whose set of instructions is ‘formal’. We can’t just create any arbitrary collection of bits and expect it to run, the computer will reject the code or data if it isn’t structured properly.

Mathematics, in its simplest sense, is the study of ‘abstract’ formal systems. Mathematicians create sets of ‘primitives’ that act on abstract mathematical ‘objects’. Collectively, the primitives are used to express relationships between the objects that are rigorous, often these can be combined together to form ‘theorems’ and algorithms. That is, for any mathematics to be valid, it must conform to strict formal rules. Mathematical objects exist only in the abstract sense, although they are often used symbolically to relate back to real things in this world. Doing so allows us to explain or predict the way things are working around us. There are many domains that attempt to model the real world by applying mathematics including statistics, physics, economics and most other sciences.

Both mathematics and computer languages are primarily about formal systems. They both allow us to build up the underlying primitives into larger components such as theorems or libraries. They both exist away from the real world, and their utility comes from mapping them back. The underlying most expressive formal system for computers is the Turing Machine. Within this context we often create other more specific systems like programming languages or applications. Turing Machines also exist within mathematics, however they are not the most expressive formal system that is known. There are larger formal systems that encompass Turing Machines. As such we can see that the formal systems within computers are a subset of those within mathematics.

An interesting difference is that mathematics is completely abstract. It can be written down in a serialized fashion, but it is not otherwise tangible. Software however runs on physical machines, that are derived from the mechanization started by the industrial revolution. Internally software might be abstract, but externally the computers on which it runs are subject to real world issues like electricity, temperature and moisture. In this way software manages to bridge the gap between our abstract thoughts and the real world around us. Software also often interfaces directly with users who are creating new input or trying to analyse what is already known.

Given the relationship, software is a form of applied mathematics. Its formal systems share all of the abstract qualities of mathematical formal systems, and the underlying data is essentially various mathematical objects. Building up software on a computer is similar to building up theorems or algorithms within a branch of mathematics. Both mathematics and computers have issues when getting mapped back to reality, since they are at best ‘approximations’ to the world around them.

Software development has been underway for at least five decades, and as such has built up a large base of existing code, knowledge and libraries. The many partial sub-systems of software, like operating systems or domain specific languages can help to hide its underlying mathematical nature, particularly when crafting graphical user interfaces, but ultimately a strong understanding of mathematics helps considerably in understanding and structuring new parts for systems. There are some aspects of programming that are non-mathematical, such as styling an interface or the content of an image, but for the rest of software development having a good sense of mathematics and logic aid in being able to craft elegant, correct and consistent instructions.

Since software is an applied branch of mathematics, it is clear that not all code is intrinsically mathematics, but realistically what isn’t lies only within the intersection between the machine and the user. That is, whatever irrational or illogical adaptations are needed to make the system more usable for people, is non-mathematical. The rest of the system however, if well-written (and possibly elegant) is a formal system like the many that are known in other branches of mathematics.