Introducing Geometric Algebra to Geometric Computing Software Developers: A Computational Thinking Approach

Designing software systems for Geometric Computing applications can be a challenging task. Software engineers typically use software abstractions to hide and manage the high complexity of such systems. Without the presence of a unifying algebraic system to describe geometric models, the use of software abstractions alone can result in many design and maintenance problems. Geometric Algebra (GA) can be a universal abstract algebraic language for software engineering geometric computing applications. Few sources, however, provide enough information about GA-based software implementations targeting the software engineering community. In particular, successfully introducing GA to software engineers requires quite different approaches from introducing GA to mathematicians or physicists. This article provides a high-level introduction to the abstract concepts and algebraic representations behind the elegant GA mathematical structure. The article focuses on the conceptual and representational abstraction levels behind GA mathematics with sufficient references for more details. In addition, the article strongly recommends applying the methods of Computational Thinking in both introducing GA to software engineers, and in using GA as a mathematical language for developing Geometric Computing software systems.