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From: usenet@ucbvax.ARPA (USENET News Administration)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: Exams vs. Programming Assignments
Message-ID: <10497@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 30-Sep-85 03:21:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.10497
Posted: Mon Sep 30 03:21:26 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 2-Oct-85 05:39:12 EDT
References: <823@dataio.Dataio.UUCP> <6358@duke.UUCP>
Reply-To: tedrick@ucbernie.UUCP (Tom Tedrick)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 22

>>Computer Science is Algorithms and Theory. [ ... lots deleted ... ]

>Hah! [ ... lots deleted ... ] The language of and reason for computer
>science is programming -- and computer scientists who can't write
>good programs are as useless as English teachers who can't write an
>proper and grammatical term paper.

>>Grad School is for the best students, the ones who can think, not
>>(necessarily) the ones who can program.

My impression is that, at the graduate level, ability to program
is regarded as an essentially trivial skill (like knowing your
multiplication tables). There are lots of undergrads who can
write good programs, but not so many who understand theory.
In grad school, good programmers are "a dime a dozen".
Good thinkers and theoreticians are not so common.

Computer *SCIENCE* is not the same as computer *PROGRAMMING*.

This is somewhat analagous to the situation in Mathematics:
being a good Mathematician has little or nothing to do with
ability to do calculations (believe it or not ...)


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