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From: djm408@tijc02.UUCP (David Marks         )
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: What CS programs ought to be like vs. a good SE program
Message-ID: <114@tijc02.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 1-Oct-86 16:14:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: tijc02.114
Posted: Wed Oct  1 16:14:46 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Oct-86 10:50:13 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Texas Instr., Johnson City TN
Lines: 88


     I have been giving thought to all the debate over what a good CS program 
ought to include and have come to the conclusion that CS ought to be split into
CS (computer science - theoretical) and SE (software engineering) with CS under the school that has the math and science departments, and SE under engineering
schools. Both depts. would work together on courses that are basic to both, but
would separate at the higher levels.

     These are the courses I think would be necessary for both curricula:

          Introduction to Programming
          Programming Concepts
          Data Structures
          Computer Architecture and Assembly Language Concepts
          Calculus I & II
          Technical Writing
          
     These are the courses primarily in the SE curriculum
      (some required, and some not):

          Introduction to Software Engineering
          Structured Analysis and Design
          Software Testing Methodologies
          Statistics for Software Engineering
          Project Management
          User Interfaces
          Graphics
          Real Time Systems
          Database Design
          Operating System Concepts
          Mangement Information Systems
          Cobol
          C
          Pascal
          Knowledge Based Systems
          Computer Software Security (Applications oriented)
          Fortran
          Mathematical And Scientific Programming
          Numerical Methods
          Computer Systems Management
          Data Communications
          Ada

     These are courses primarily in the CS curriculum
        (some required, some not):

          Computability and Automata Theory
          Symbolic Logic
          Mathematical Analysis of Algorithms
          Mathematics of Databases and Data Storage
          Statistics
          Prolog
          Lisp
          Smalltalk
A
          Object Oriented Programming
          Discrete Mathematics
          Linear Algebra and Matrices
          Mathematics of Searching and Sorting
          Artificial Intelligence
          Graph Theory
          Topology
          Parsing
          Computer Language Design
          Computer/Software Security (Mathematical orientation)
          Symbolic Mathematics on a Computer
          Parallel Processing Algorithms
          Numerical Methods and Aproximation Theory

     The above is by no means rigorous, and does not disallow SE students from
taking CS courses and vice versa. However, it does separate the theoretical
scientist from the application engineer as has been done in virtually all other
sciences. As you can see, I have heavily weighted the theoretical curriculum
towards the mathematical. I would expect that if the above were followed, CS
graduates would be the sort of people who would contribute to the JOURNAL OF 
THE ACM and the SE people would contribute to the COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM,
although these two groups would by no means be mutually exclusive.

     I would enjoy reading comments on this proposal.

                       Dave Marks
                       Tailorable Products Department
                       Industrial Systems Division
                       Texas Instruments
                       Johnson City, TN

All the usual disclaimers apply! :-)

L'argent n'est pas le bonheur, mais il l'achete a ceux qui le font!