Page - VII - in Programming for Computations – Python - A Gentle Introduction to Numerical Simulations with Python 3.6, Volume Second Edition

Preface Computing, in the senseofdoingmathematicalcalculations, is a skill that mankind has developed over thousands of years. Programming, on the other hand, is in its infancy, with a history that spans a few decades only. Both topics are vastly comprehensive and usually taught as separate subjects in educational institutions around the world, especially at the undergraduate level. This book is about the combinationof the two,becausecomputingtodaybecomessomuchmorepowerful whencombinedwith programming. Most universities and colleges implicitly require students to specialize in com- puter science if they want to learn the craft of programming, since other student programs usually do not offer programming to an extent demanded for really mastering this craft. Common arguments claim that it is sufficient with a brief introduction, that there is not enough room for learning programming in addition to all other must-have subjects, and that there is so much software available that fewreallyneed to programthemselves.A consequence is that engineeringstudents often graduate with shallow knowledge about programming,unless they happened tochoose thecomputer sciencedirection. We think this is an unfortunate situation. There is no doubt that practicing engineersand scientistsneed to knowtheirpen-and-papermathematics.Theymust also be able to run off-the-shelf software for important standard tasks and will certainly do that a lot. Nevertheless, the benefits of mastering programming are many. WhyLearnProgramming? 1. Ready-madesoftware is limited to handlingcertain standardproblems.What do you do when the problem at hand is not covered by the software you bought? Fortunately, a lot of modern software systems are extensible via programming. In fact, many systems demand parts of the problem specification (e.g., material models) tobe specifiedbycomputercode. 2. With programming skills, you may extend the flexibility of existing software packagesby combining them. For example,you may integrate packages that do notspeak toeachother fromtheoutset.Thismakes theworkflowsimpler,more efficient, andmorereliable, and it putsyouina position toattacknewproblems. vii