Is graph theory a good skill to have?

[TheStrangeQuark]

Hello,

Does anyone here have a background in graph theory, and if so, do you use it when programming in LabVIEW? I was drawing a statechart for a state machine program and was using a little bit of graph theory that I learned during a course a couple years ago and the thought came to me that it might be useful to know more since LabVIEW's interface is like making diagrams and graphs. Do you think it would be a good use of time to read an introductory book on graph theory? I was looking at this one: Graph Theory with Applications to Engineering and Computer Science by Nasingh Deo

[Bob_Schor]

I've done a little (I like math).  I think of Graph Theory as more involved with Algebra and Topology, and LabVIEW as more concerned with developing Virtual Instruments for engineering applications.  There can definitely be overlap between these two fields (and noone should be discouraged from having the fun of learning about Hamiltonian Circuits), but it rather more depends on (a) your inherent interests and (b) the type(s) of problems you contemplate pursuing using LabVIEW.  If you are really "into" graphs and diagrams, some other, more mathematically-oriented languages (one of the four "M" languages, for example) may be more appropriate.  It all depends on the Question/Problem.

Bob Schor

[TheStrangeQuark]

That makes sense, thank you. Are there any other fields of maths that you think would be beneficial for someone programming in LabVIEW?

[Tim_McClung]

This might be a 'duh' kind of an answer but I like to think I'm known for that kind of thing...

if you are looking for forms of math to understand when developing LabVIEW I'd recommend digging into logic, binary and hex based math.  Even though LabVIEW abstracts a fair bit of this out from the normal user you'll run into instances (especially when dealing with hardware or more complex logic decisions) where understand hex, binary, and logic math is helpful.

Cheers,

Tim

[jwscs]

i remember the first day in university, where the profs described what (applied) math is:

Real World --> Abstraction --> Solution --> Apply To Real World

(of course thats very much simplified)

so in general math can help you formalize the problem,

and then find solutions,

but what kind of math may very well depend on your problem.

the CS students have to learn a lot of math too,

because CS has a lot of formal theory.

what helps in understanding programming is (not exhaustive list)

  - recursion theory, boolean logic

  - discrete math, graphs (e.g. datastructures)

  - language- / automata-theory (e.g. grammars, regex, algorithm runtimes)

in general you will broaden your horizon, so if you got the time and interest,

try to find out about CS course-plans and have a look.

specifically i would second @Tim_McClungs answer, that you benefit the most from boolean-logic and the different representations of data (and their conversions) (e.g. binary, hex, oct, number representations)

 regards