Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!usc!apple!genbank!bionet!ig!arizona!mike
From: mike@cs.arizona.edu (Mike Coffin)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: CS education [engineering, mathematics, and computer science]
Message-ID: <15966@megaron.cs.arizona.edu>
Date: 6 Dec 89 17:18:27 GMT
References: <34878@regenmeister.uucp>
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson
Lines: 38

From article <34878@regenmeister.uucp>, (Chris Prael):
> 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.

"Algorithm" is not a synonym for "process."  In the usual sense of the
term an "algorithm" is a procedure for solving a *mathematical* problem.
If you want to call the procedure for building a bridge or making
coffee an algorithm I won't argue with you, but in doing so you make
the term almost vacuous.  Since "process" is a perfectly good term for
such activity, why not use "algorithm" in the more precise sense?
(By the way, I'm curious: why do you think "algorithm" is pompous?)

>>  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.

This is sometimes the way mathematics is presented, but it's hardly
ever the way it is invented.  Newton invented the calculus in order to
derive an algorithm for predicting the motion of the planets.  He
didn't start with a collection of postulates, start deriving
inferences, and then suddenly realize that had predicted elliptical
orbits. Even seemingly abstract branches of mathematics were usually
invented for a purpose, although some textbooks seem bent on
concealing it.  If you take a good look at the work of great (and, for
that matter lesser) mathematicians you will find that they almost
uniformly had solid practical reasons for the mathematics they
invented.
-- 
Mike Coffin				mike@arizona.edu
Univ. of Ariz. Dept. of Comp. Sci.	{allegra,cmcl2}!arizona!mike
Tucson, AZ  85721			(602)621-2858