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From: gft_robert@gsbacd.uchicago.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: The programming CULT
Message-ID: <1990Aug6.172135.27287@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 6 Aug 90 17:09:00 GMT
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Organization: University of Chicago Graduate School of Business
Lines: 47

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In article <12168@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>, ewa@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Eric Anderson) writes...
 
>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.
[description of what CS is]
>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?


I don't have a degree in computer science, but I was at one point thinking
about getting an MS in it.  From what I could glean from CS catalogs (and from
talking with the director of an MS program), CS classes consist oftwo things::
practical stuff which you could teach yourself on your own, and highly
theoretical, mathematical/logical stuff (which you could probably learn on your
own anyway).  The former I can do myself, and the latter seems of less
immediate importance to those who do not have their eyes set on the ivory
tower.

There are of course many academics who have led to the innovations we take for
granted today, but I personally admire someone like Bill Atkinson or Andy
Hertzfeld, who actually goes out and produces something useful as opposed to
the legions of CS MS's and PhD's, many of whom produce little besides academic
papers.  I see the difference not so much as that between carpentry and civil
engineering, but rather as that between a film maker and a film critic: both
have their uses, but I know which I admire more: the one who creatively
produces.

For some interesting views on the diffence between "those who do" and "those
who teach", read Steven Levy's "Hackers" (it's a great book in any case).

Robert


============================================================================
= gft_robert@gsbacd.uchicago.edu * generic disclaimer: * "It's more fun to =
=            		         * all my opinions are *  compute"         =
=                                * mine                *  -Kraftwerk       =
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