Coding

Inside Programming

Programming your calculator to solve a problem for you with the least work involved takes a lot more work than one might think. To write a program that can solve any summation problem given your variable, it took me three days and about four to seven pages of code. Of course, some of the programs are easier, like this fifteen minute program I wrote today in Calculus to solve this problem:

"Find the equation of the line that is perpendicular to the line 4y+3x-2=0

and that passes through the point (1,-1)."

Here was my source code:

Disp "Y=MX+B"

Prompt M,B (Asked for the slope and y intercept of the original equation)

(1/M)*-1ÞM (Took the opposite reciprocal of the original slope)

ClrHome

Disp "(X,Y)"

Prompt X,Y (Asked for the point the problem passed through)

Y-MXÞB (Found the new equation's y intercept)

ClrHome

Disp "Y=MX+B"

Disp "M=", M ( Gave the new slope)

Disp "B=", B ( Gave the new intercept)

Later, I came back and added a function that automatically converted the answer to a fraction. Unfortunately, the bell rang before I could even use the program that I made it for (it was on my homework though, not any quiz).

Anyway, you can see that there is a lot of work that goes into these programs, even the easy ones. The people who code these programs obviously have to know the problem inside out, seeing that they have to solve the problems with variables and not numbers.

While this programming looks hard, it becomes second nature after a while. This program might have taken me forty-five minutes six months ago. But it takes practice. This is why we stress a math program that fosters and supports active programming as an addition to homework. While we lost time that we spent on homework, we actually spent a lot of extra time that we didn't have to coding and making this site.

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