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From: levy@ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: Exams vs. Programming Assignments
Message-ID: <469@ttrdc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Oct-85 19:52:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: ttrdc.469
Posted: Thu Oct  3 19:52:56 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Oct-85 02:39:43 EDT
References: <823@dataio.Dataio.UUCP> <6358@duke.UUCP> <10497@ucbvax.ARPA>
Organization: AT&T, Computer Systems Division, Skokie, IL
Lines: 38

In article <10497@ucbvax.ARPA>, usenet@ucbvax.ARPA (USENET News Administration) writes:
>
>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 ...)

A quibble: being a good mathematician, however, will probably have a good
deal to do with ability to do algebra!  Programming could be looked upon
as the "algebra" which one must deal with before being proficient in the
"calculus."  Exactly what language is learned may not mean much; the idea
is that the computer scientist has experienced the act of programming and
understands what is going on as a result of the programming.  Perhaps the
programming need not even be in a formal language at all; ideally a "con-
ceptual" programming ought to suffice (algorithms which manipulate the
data entities within the computer)--but practically, this is learned via
programming in a conventional language, C, Lisp, Fortran, Pascal, Occam,
Basic, Ada, ... what have you.  Some of these practical languages have
more ability to express certain algorithms than others, of course.  Being
good in one which has a more powerful operation set (C versus Fortran, for
instance) bodes well for the ability to grasp the workings of complex and
clever algorithms, just as being proficient in many aspects of algebra
helps one with the calculus.  End quibble.
-- 
 -------------------------------    Disclaimer:  The views contained herein are
|       dan levy | yvel nad      |  my own and are not at all those of my em-
|         an engihacker @        |  ployer or the administrator of any computer
| at&t computer systems division |  upon which I may hack.
|        skokie, illinois        |
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