80488
submission
Coryoth writes:
While US students continue to do well on specific skill and benchmark focussed tests, things look less positive in exams that consider a wider understanding of mathematics and problems solving skills (see, for example, the 2003 PISA study of mathematics and science skills for 15 year olds in OECD countries): the US is slipping behind noticeably. At the same time there is a growing amount of discontent with modern approaches to mathematics instruction in the US. Is the US heading in the wrong direction in how it teaches mathematics?
79784
submission
Coryoth writes:
Mathematics education has been subject to many fads over the decades, including New Math, and the resulting backlash against it. These days, however, math education in the US is moving more and more toward a highly applied approach, and an effort to "engage the student" by making math "relevant to them" and emphasising group work. The result has been a muddying of the math syllabus. This in turn is beginning to prompt a backlash. Indeed, math professors who actually look at public school texts are usually appalled by the lack of real content. Are these newer mathematics education programs detrimental to children's methodical analytic and logic skills, and what does this say for the future of US software programmers?
34923
submission
Coryoth writes:
This first major release of EiffelStudio since it went GPL, and includes many improvements, including an overhaul of the look and feel. Versions are available for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Solaris, and provisionally for MacOS X. EiffelStudio provides an IDE, core libraries, and compiler for Eiffel — a language well worth a second look.
28074
submission
Coryoth writes:
In a UK government commissioned report by respected economist Sir Nicholas Stern concludes that mitigating global warming could cost around 1% of global GDP if spent immediately, but ignoring the problem could cost between 5% and 20% of global GDP. This 700 page report represents the first major report on climate change from an economist rather than a scientist. The report calls for, among other things, the introduction of green taxes and carbon trading schemes as soon as possible, and calls on the international community to sign a new pact on greenhouse emissions by next year rather than in 2010/11. At the very least the UK government is taking the report seriously, with both major parties proposing new green taxes. Stern points out, however, that any action will only be effective if truly global.
28064
submission
Coryoth writes:
The release of a report commisioned by the UK government by respected economist Sir Nicholas Stern has conluded that attempting to address anthropogenic global warming could cost around 1% of global GDP, if spent immediately, however ignoring the issue could end up costing between 5% and 20% of global GDP. The 700 page report is the first major report on climate change from an economist rather than a scientist. The report urges green taxes and carbon trading schemes to be put in place as soon as possible and also calls for the international community to sign a new pact on greenhouse emissions by next year rather than in 2010/11. At the very least the UK government is taking the report very seriously, and can be expected to take many of the actions described — both major parties are already proposing various green taxes in light of the report.
11101
submission
Coryoth writes:
Using automated theorem provers to verify code has generally been impractical for all but the most safety critical software projects. Both software and hardware have improved significantly. The quality and efficiency of modern automated theorem provers, such as ESC/Java2 and Spec#, have reached the point where they can be effectively integrated alongside unit tests to provide more complete coverage for test driven design and similar approaches. Recent research papers have speculated that such integration could be highly beneficial and is almost inevitable. Could it be that theorem proving could finally become an integral part of software development?
10945
submission
Coryoth writes:
Agile development and formal methods have generally been considered to be poles apart as far as software development methodologies go. It turns out that this may be far from true. Specification Driven Development(PDF) is an elegant marriage of Agile Test Driven Development with contract programming and lightweight formal methods. With high quality, fast, automated theorem provers making their way into the development world such as ESC/Java2 for Java, Spec# for C#, and ESpec for Eiffel, lightweight formal methods can be integrated into the Agile process. Espec provides an integrated system of Fit acceptance testing, unit testing, and theorem proving. Are similar integrated Agile specification based frameworks using JML and Spec# on the horizon for Java and C#?
