Wow. I'm not a cryptographer by any means, but have come into contact with asymmetric cryptography often enough to not do totally stupid things... But this response is really just complete and utter gibberish to me.
The gibberishness comes from the math needed to understand it and not from the knowledge of asymmetric cryptographic patterns. I highly recommend that all CS students take some abstract algebra courses for an introduction to the ideas behind this!
Might as well take an Introduction to Semiconductor Devices engineering course while you're at it. Just as relevant when it comes to software development.
Abstract algebra is more relevant to the general practice of cryptography engineering than semiconductor engineering is to the general practice of writing software.
I'm sure it is but it also has negligible application to quotidian grunt-programming which is regrettably what 99.9% of people on HN do. Learning a skill that seems never to get used seems completely pointless to me. That's a critique of industry, not of linear algebra by the way.
I agree that abstract algebra has only marginal important to the general practice of programming. I only dispute that it's marginal for cryptography engineering.
