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I thought of programmatic but that doesn't seem right because it puts too much stress on the automation side and not on the actual development and logical side of it.

A place to collect your mathematical and [programming] thoughts.

Martijn
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    "Programmatical" seems to be a recognized adjective according to Oxford Online – BiscuitBoy Feb 16 '16 at 16:48
  • What is the exact context? In some cases, you may be able to use "programming" as an attributive noun ("He had a lot of mathematical knowledge and programming knowledge"). In other cases, you cannot. To say what the best option is, we need to know how you want to use it. – herisson Feb 16 '16 at 16:49
  • @sumelic I made an edit to reflect the context in which the word in question is being used. – Martijn Feb 16 '16 at 16:51
  • @BiscuitBoy That seems to work, I honestly didn't think of that. Convert it into an answer, please. – Martijn Feb 16 '16 at 16:55
  • If you're trying to make a word category comparison; it will not work. "Mathematics" is a noun and "mathematical" its corresponding adjective. But "programming" is a verb present participle. "Program" and "programmable" are the comparable words. – BillJ Feb 16 '16 at 16:56
  • @BillJ I agree with you 100% but using program in this context didn't seem right. – Martijn Feb 16 '16 at 16:57
  • No disrespect @Martijn but I honestly think it is a general reference question. I am glad you found my comments helpful. I wouldn't mind if you post it as an answer yourself. Cheers – BiscuitBoy Feb 16 '16 at 16:59
  • You could use "programming" as a noun modifier, though, as in A programming error. Not a real adjective, of course, but as close as you'll get other than using "programmable". – BillJ Feb 16 '16 at 17:00
  • @BiscuitBoy As you can see, I'm fairly new here so any suggested edits, I will gladly accept. No harsh feelings at all. – Martijn Feb 16 '16 at 17:00
  • The problem is that "mathematics" is a science. "Programming" isn't. ;) – Hot Licks Feb 16 '16 at 17:13

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To fill in the blank in the specific phrase "[programming] thoughts," the most natural option to me is simply programming. (Examples of this type of phrasing being used: "Programming Thoughts" (Youtube Video), "Coding thoughts")

It's true that parallelism seems to call for an adjective in the construction "mathematical and [programming] thoughts," but there simply is no commonly used adjective with this meaning. Programmatic usually means

connected with, suggesting or following a plan

  • programmatic reforms

(Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

and programmatical is very rarely used.

I'd advise rephrasing to something like "thoughts on mathematics and programming" or "thoughts about mathematics and programming."

herisson
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    "Programming" used like that is a verb functioning as an attributive modifier, but it does the job! – BillJ Feb 16 '16 at 17:04
  • In the NP "programming error", "programming" is a verb functioning as a modifier. It doesn't change its word class just because its a modifier! We don't talk of gerunds in modern grammar, other than the use of the clause category "gerund-participial". – BillJ Feb 16 '16 at 17:07
  • Modern grammar doesn't recognise a word class "gerund". Non-finite verb forms are either 'plain' (walk), 'gerund-participle' (walking) or 'past participle' (walked). Oh well ... – BillJ Feb 16 '16 at 17:13
  • No matter, the important thing is that "programming" can be a modifier, and I think that's about as close as we can get to what Martijn was looking for if we ignore the real adjective 'programmable', which has the sense of 'an error which is programmable' rather than 'an error in the programming'. – BillJ Feb 16 '16 at 17:22
  • You can be programmatical, but watch out for the people who are antigrammatical. – Hellion Feb 16 '16 at 17:38
  • While I don't accept that CGEL (Huddlestone & Pullum) are the final arbiters of all things grammatical (as Nordquist implies, people claiming that one particular approach to grammar must be seen as inerrant are really the new prescriptivists), tracing the conversion of 'programming' via a deverbal noun to an attributive doesn't seem to fit with any grammars. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 16 '16 at 17:51
  • Where did I say that ' "programming" is not a noun'? I'm saying that some grammarians (though see BillJ's comments: at least one modern school disagrees here) regard ing-forms used as adjectives as adjectives. From an article by Nordquist at Grammar.about: participial adjective A traditional term for an adjective that has the same form as the participle of a verb (that is, a verb ending in -ing or -ed/-en) and that usually exhibits the ordinary properties of an adjective. >> Some of these have no corresponding verb, which.. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 16 '16 at 18:18
  • makes the 'still a verb' analysis rather odd. // If one is going to say that these participial adjectives have developed from participles via intermediates, one will need to provide reasonable evidence. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 16 '16 at 18:22
  • @EdwinAshworth: but it seems clear to me that in phrases like "programming thoughts" "programming" is not a participial adjective of any sort, verbal or deverbal, because the meaning doesn't fit: the thoughts are not doing the programming. That's why I assumed it was a noun here. – herisson Feb 16 '16 at 18:38
  • I couldn't really argue with a claim that there might be an intermediate somewhere along the verb - noun gradience in this case, but from 'programming' as a deverbal noun doesn't ring true at all. You might wish to look up Mark Beadles' answer on what deverbal nouns are here. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 16 '16 at 19:38
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    @BillJ: I have asked a new question about gerunds/present participles/deverbal nouns here: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/307865/is-programming-not-a-noun – herisson Feb 17 '16 at 02:02