Basic programming actually had very little to do with mathematics.
All you needed was an understanding of a few concepts in the language and the most basic logic.
But when it came to solving complex problems, mathematics was an essential skill.
Take Angry Birds, for example.
The elasticity of the slingshot plus the firing angle determined the bird's flight path, and how much force the bird exerted when it struck an object involved plenty of physics too.
Could you do without the physics?
It wasn't impossible.
But,
without those physics calculations, Angry Birds would become a series of games about armor-piercing rounds flying in straight lines.
It would lose the most important part of the game: its soul.
Yan Xiao's study plan had been provided by the system.
Because the entire learning process was so scientifically structured,
his studies began with low-level assembly language.
As for the even lower-level machine instructions-the "micro-operations" performed by a computer's CPU-those belonged to another discipline.
Learning assembly language was tedious, though fortunately, the system helped make it entertaining.
Even so, studying it left Yan Xiao feeling that life wasn't worth living.
Once he had gained a basic understanding and command of assembly language,
Yan Xiao continued delving deeper.
From C to C++, from Java to the higher-level Python, he worked his way through every last one.
Of course,
he had only mastered the basics.
When it came to solutions for complex problems, he was still a complete beginner.
After finishing the languages,
Yan Xiao bought a set of advanced mathematics textbooks and spent about half a month working through them.
Once he finished, he realized
he still had to tackle physics. Studying that on and off took another half month.
At last, early July arrived,
and judging began for the Academy of Agricultural Sciences'