Yeah I would call this the engineering approach (matrices) vs the mathematical approach (algebra).
I took like 3-4 courses in the US involving the engineering approach, starting in high school and continuing through the college as a CS major. That was all that was required.
But I also like algebra, so I happened to take a 400-level course that only math majors take my senior of college. And then I got the group theory / vector space view on it. I don't think 95% of CS majors got that.
I don't think one is better than the other, but they should have tried to balance it out more. It helps to understand both viewpoints. (If you haven't seen the latter, then picture a 300-page text on linear algebra that doesn't mention matrices at all. It's all linear transformations and spaces.)
What country were you taught in? Wild guess: France?
I took like 3-4 courses in the US involving the engineering approach, starting in high school and continuing through the college as a CS major. That was all that was required.
But I also like algebra, so I happened to take a 400-level course that only math majors take my senior of college. And then I got the group theory / vector space view on it. I don't think 95% of CS majors got that.
I don't think one is better than the other, but they should have tried to balance it out more. It helps to understand both viewpoints. (If you haven't seen the latter, then picture a 300-page text on linear algebra that doesn't mention matrices at all. It's all linear transformations and spaces.)
What country were you taught in? Wild guess: France?