gremble

Oh. I can program. I've done two university courses using C++. I've taught myself haskell using Haskell Book and for my numerical analysis course I reimplemented all the matlab that we had to do in Julia and Python. A different poster mentioned C/C++ so I am currently considering going through the numerical analysis again and doing it in C++.

I didn't mention programming because I don't see myself being a developer, which I knew would get a lot of attention. I like solving problems with programming, but I don't see myself writing a webapp to collect information for someone to steal.

Computer Science is my secret lover. I initially studied that, but my university focused on producing java devs for industry and didn't do the "science" of computer science. I still work through books when I have time though. About half-way with TAOCP V1.

I am going to share a secret with you, I am not all that clever either. I just substitute it with stubborn doggedness to figure out a problem, a willingness to be wrong often and a slight dash of creativity. This has so far made me reasonably successful. If you can get past the necessary, but confusing symbolisms and formalisms, its pretty good.

Of all the great replies I've gotten, this one has arguably alleviated my concerns the most.

I guess not employability as much as hoping someone will pay me to solve problems with mathematics with ideally some interesting problems thrown in. I majored in pure and applied mathematics and I am fully aware the no one is going to ask me to do functional analysis for cash, but it would still be nice to do some sort of applied mathematics for money.

This was very informative, thanks. I am perusing postgraduate studies. I've been accepted into an Honours degree in Applied Mathematics so I am not hanging up my academic hat yet.

My reason for asking the question is two-fold: some badly needed reassurance that I have not rolled myself into a hole (I think it was a design flaw that we cannot re-roll characters in real life) and getting a broader perspective on potential places to keep in mind - in terms of extra-curricular skills that I need to gather along the way.

> To perform the “Branch if 0” part of the operation, we would like to guide this monstar into the appropriate Branch gadget. To do this, build a room that catches all monstars leaving the counter. This room should consist of a flat floor for the monstar to walk back and forth across, along with many platforms forming trap doors in the floor. Next, force Tim through a second Lever Pull Gadget, whose lever opens one of these trap doors. Build a path below this trap door, leading the monstar to the appropriate Branch gadget.

Alright, M1 the first memory "thing", the counter where the result of ADD is stored. M2 is the second memory "thing", the room mentioned in the part quoted. However, you have made me feel rather silly for not realising the very obvious solution to the problem.

Thanks.

I could use some guidance, as I seem to have gotten lost.

The implementation of the counter is IO (the levers that Tim pulls), ADD, SUB (branch if 0), M1 (the counter).. and then M2.

M2 is the counter that holds the monsters as they are subtracted from M1. It is also used as IO for the branch part of SUB (if I understood the article correctly).

Therefore, if I call SUB with M2 = 0, then the counter will malfunction.

I think that the consequence of this is that the given function has a decided halting point.(Branching was taken out). I have no idea how to say this in a better way, sadly my computer science education is tragically lacking.