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From: ewa@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Eric Anderson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: The programming CULT
Message-ID: <12168@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 4 Aug 90 20:30:59 GMT
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In article <3726@husc6.harvard.edu> siegel@endor.UUCP (Rich Siegel) writes:
>
>	My pet peeve about most CS curricula is that they train people to
>be computer scientists, not professional software engineers; I am yet to
>see a course of study which provides emphasis on the design and implementation
>of production code.

I used to feel the same way, but after four years of undergraduate and
one year of graduate study in CS, I see this differently.

The design of production code generally requires only simple CS knowledge:
Data Structures (mostly) and a little bit of Algorithms and Operating Systems.
Implementation requires discipline and good management skills.  These are
not specific to CS.

Computer Science, rather, is the study of Languages, Operating Systems,
Theory, Architecture, etc.  This is where discoveries are made, this is
where the science is done.  When was the last "production coding"
breakthrough that you have heard of?

In short, (and overly-simplified), Computer Science is to Computer Programming
what Civil Engineering is to Carpentry.  Have you ever met anyone with a BA
in Carpentry?

Now before you pour on the flames, I should point out that I am the author
of a nationally distributed program for the Mac.  ("Great Gantt")  I used
only the simplest ideas from my CS education in writing this product.
(And to Rich's credit, I used Symantec's Think Pascal... :-)

Eric Anderson, Dept of CSE, UC San Diego    ewa@cs.ucsd.edu