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From: colonel@sunybcs.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: what's computer science
Message-ID: <2392@sunybcs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 14-Oct-85 09:45:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: sunybcs.2392
Posted: Mon Oct 14 09:45:37 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Oct-85 04:45:15 EDT
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Organization: Save the Dodoes Foundation
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> That brings up my biggest complaint against undergraduate computer science 
> educations is that they teach you "programming"... they teach you how to edit 
> a file under VMS... they teach you how to write in assembly language...
> they teach you what a barrel shifter is... they teach (etc.), but they 
> don't require any theory classes.  
> 
> They don't require a class on design and analysis of algorithms.  They 
> don't teach the thoery of LALR parsers, they don't teach...

One trouble with theory in computer science is that it doesn't last.  I'd
estimate that half the theoretical work that's been done in computer science
is obsolete.

And another trouble is that theory has not contributed much to computer
science; it almost always comes after practice.  Had Algol and Pascal
been failures, theory would have quietly buried the corpses.
-- 
Col. G. L. Sicherman
UU: ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel
CS: colonel@buffalo-cs
BI: csdsicher@sunyabva