Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!helios!gordon
From: gordon@cs.tamu.edu (Dan Gordon)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Re: Operational Semantics (Was:Re: "Models of Computation" course syllabus)
Message-ID: <10161@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Date: 16 Nov 90 22:38:31 GMT
References: <18679.9011131440@olympus.cs.hull.ac.uk> <428@data.UUCP> <2058@skye.cs.ed.ac.uk>
Sender: usenet@helios.TAMU.EDU
Organization: Computer Science Department, Texas A&M University
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In article <2058@skye.cs.ed.ac.uk> hans@cs.edinburgh.ac.uk ('Hans Huttel') writes:
>[Discussion on a course in operational semantics]
>An aside (?): I don't think the title "Models of Computation" is such a bad choice; a course focussing on Turing machines, Markov algorithms etc. should be called "Models for Computability" if you ask me.

Well, the term "models of computation" has for years had a certain
connotation in theoretical computer science, and has been used for
exactly such things as Turing machines, etc. To give this name to
a course on something else misleads the students and most other
universities that the students might apply to in the future. If it's
a course in operational semantics, why not call it "operational
semantics"? If the title of the course has been mandated and cannot
be changed, then ... well ... it's none of my business...