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From: djm408@tijc02.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: software engineering
Message-ID: <141@tijc02.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Mar-87 09:08:17 EST
Article-I.D.: tijc02.141
Posted: Tue Mar 24 09:08:17 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Mar-87 04:44:38 EST
References: <340@ndsuvax.UUCP>
Organization: Texas Instr., Johnson City TN
Lines: 31

in article <340@ndsuvax.UUCP>, ncmagel@ndsuvax.UUCP (ken magel) says:
> 
> 
>      At what level should students be taught software engineering principles and
> concerns?  How much should be covered in the introductory courses, how much
> should be presented to non-majors?  Should the material be a part of courses 
> whose emphasis is another topic (e.g., data structures, operating systems),
> or should there be specific courses which concentrate on design, on testing, etc.
> ?
>      When and how often should students do project assignments?

     It is my belief that computing has matured to the point that Software
Engineering should be split off from Computer Science as separate a discipline.
This is analogous to the split between chemistry and chemical engineering.

     Software engineering students should be taught engineering concepts from
the beginning, including design, analysis, and project management. This does
not mean that they shouldn't be taught some theory. Just as a chemical
engineer needs a solid foundation in chemistry, a software engineer needs
a solid foundation in computer science, including data structures, ai
concepts, basic computability and automata theory, etc. However, the
software engineering student should concentrate on applications of theory
rather than the theory itself.

     On the other hand computer science students should be taught a curriculum
heavily oriented towards the theoretical: data structure analysis, computabilityand automata theory, graph theory, topology, etc. However, they should have
a good foundation in programming, just as good chemists need to know
laboratory procedures; after all, theories need to be tested.

     Unfortunately, many CS departments teach an amalgam of the two types of
curricula, leaving the student with a less than solid foundation in either.