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From: doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re:  CS degrees, are they useful?
Message-ID: <1074@terak.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Mar-86 17:22:40 EST
Article-I.D.: terak.1074
Posted: Mon Mar  3 17:22:40 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Mar-86 05:54:50 EST
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Organization: Calcomp Display Products Division, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
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Wanna know what's missing in the usual curricula for a CS degree?

They usually leave the CS grad with the belief that he understands
programming.  Wrong; he understands Computer Science.

There is no "science" in most applied computing.  Professional
programmers seldom spend any time on CS concerns.  The applications that
need to be programmed aren't exotic; they just need to be written.  In
most cases, the algorithm is blatantly obvious.  All that needs to be
done is to select a reasonably appropriate data structure, then crank
out the code to do the job.

Look at this list of CS topics suggested so far:

> Statistical theory of communication and linear systems,
> calculus,
> advanced calculus for engineers,
> linear algebra,
> mathematical statistics
> numerical analysis,
> propositional and predicate calculus,
> complexity theory (concrete and asymptotic),
> graph theory,
> combinatorics,
> universal algebra,
> Boolean algebra,
> relational algebra,
> model theory,
> theory of computation,
> theory of formal languages,
> recursion theory,
> lambda calculus,
> denotational semantics.

Is there anything on this list that will help you port UNIX(tm) to
a new system?  What about implementing an FFT?  What about when your
assignment is to write a windowing system for a bit-mapped display?
Does it provide any guidance for writing a CICS Command Level
transaction which allows funds to be transferred between accounts?
Will it simplify the job of writing an electronic spreadsheet program?
Or maybe it will help you write an SNA or SCSI interface?

I'm not saying that a CS curriculum should teach programming.  What I'm
saying is that the students should be kept aware that CS and programming
are two different things.  (Oh, by the way, this implies that I believe
that a CS degree is not particularly useful for a programmer.)
-- 
Doug Pardee -- CalComp -- {hardy,savax,seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!terak!doug