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From: chrisp@regenmeister.uucp (Chris Prael)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: CS education [engineering, mathematics, and computer science]
Message-ID: <34878@regenmeister.uucp>
Date: 1 Dec 89 02:46:35 GMT
References: <15812@megaron.cs.arizona.edu>
Sender: chrisp@regenmeister (Chris Prael)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Mtn View, CA
Lines: 36

From article <15812@megaron.cs.arizona.edu>, by mike@cs.arizona.edu (Mike Coffin):
> [Regarding the relationship between mathematics and computer science]
> 
> From article <34795@regenmeister.uucp> (Chris Prael):
>> My observation and experience is that this relationship is
>> historical in origin.  It traces to the fact that most computer
>> science departments were spun off from mathematics departments. ...
>> There are two other sources of the mathematical misapprehension.
>> The first is that the earliest applications performed with computers
>> were mainly numerical analysis problems. ... The other is the fact
>> the programs are completely abstract.
> 
> I think the alleged ``misapprehension'' has more to do with the fact
> that computer programs are algorithms than the reasons suggested
> above.  Algorithms have been, at least since Euclid, the realm of
> mathematicians.

Except when they were the realm of physicists, chemists, engineers, ...
Algorithm is nothing but a pompous synonym for the word "process".  All
forms of engineering deal equally in designing and implementing
processes.

>  A large part (but not all) of mathematics has been
> the development of algorithms and proofs of their correctness.  

Not for a very long time (with certain minor exceptions).  Mathematics
deals primarily in discovering the implications of sets of postulates.
A paraphrase is: mathematics deals in determining the content of sets
defined by a small number of identifying elements.  A proof is a formal
demonstration that a non-identifying element is a member of the set.
The term "correctness" is content free (ie. meaningless) in mathematics.

Algorithms have historically been the province of people who got their 
hands dirty, unless they were bookkeepers.

Chris Prael


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