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From: lamy@utai.UUCP (Jean-Francois Lamy)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: Math and CS
Message-ID: <1433@utai.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Mar-86 09:11:48 EST
Article-I.D.: utai.1433
Posted: Thu Mar 13 09:11:48 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Mar-86 12:49:15 EST
References: <256@hropus.UUCP> <6400005@ccvaxa> <77@umcp-cs.UUCP> <1413@garfield.columbia.edu> <6988@duke.UUCP> <767@harvard.UUCP>
Reply-To: lamy@utai.UUCP (Jean-Francois Lamy)
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 22
Summary: 


I personally would say that the "very algorithmic parts of mathematics" are in
fact just as much part of Computer Science.  As an aside, I would prefer using
the French word "Informatique", defined as "the science of logical and
automatic treatment of information".  This has the benefit of not using the
word "computer", and to indicate that some kind of formal description of the
processes involved has to be possible.

I think that what distinguishes informatics as a field is a concern for the
specification of algorithms. 

This includes the specification of the properties of the data they operate on,
the specification of the expected results, the specification of the
operational behaviour, as well as considering devices (abstract or physical)
capable of carrying out the execution.
-- 

Jean-Francois Lamy              
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto,         
Departement d'informatique et de recherche operationnelle, U. de Montreal.
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