Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!hplb.CSNET!cdfk From: cdfk@hplb.CSNET.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest Subject: Is Computer Science Science? Or is it Art? Message-ID: <12527.8709181200@hplb.lb.hp.co.uk> Date: Fri, 18-Sep-87 08:00:12 EDT Article-I.D.: hplb.12527.8709181200 Posted: Fri Sep 18 08:00:12 1987 Date-Received: Wed, 23-Sep-87 07:26:02 EDT Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Distribution: world Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 95 Approved: ailist@stripe.sri.com Randy Martens says:- "There is, however, Computer Engineering. (and Software Engineering, and Systems Engineering etc.). Science is the discovery of the new. Engineering takes what the scientists have found, and finds ways to do useful things with it." If this is so, my first question is Who are the relevant scientists and what have they discovered? -*- As an AI researcher I'm always discovering new things - although possibly not interesting in the same way as Newton's laws of motion or Einstein's theory of general relativity - they are still potentially new knowledge. (Most people must be content to play with grains of sand not pebbles!) However I would defend an engineer's creativity and ability to experiment - they too discover new things but with a different aim in mind and a different form of reporting than the scientist. However I believe that in software there is a better analogy with art and illustration than engineering or science. I have noticed that this is not welcomed by many people in computing but this might be because they know so little of the thought processes and planning that go on behind the development of, say, a still life or an advertising poster. Like software art is frequently pliable and reworkable; like software there are many different methods and philosophies (many not employed explicitly by experts although there are procedures for producing certain types of work), rules of thumb and conventions; there are great practioners and many more humble industrious ones; there are different schools of thought and also ferverent arguments about such low level things as Acrylics or Oils, sable brushes or manmade fibre (here ethical issues also creep in), the "rightness" of working from a photograph, etc. In illustration and advertising the artist might be given a very wide but constrained brief or a very tightly specified mock-up to work from. A work of art or an ad are often the results of a carefully executed plan (although the results are not always quite was expected). I have also watched both good artists and good software makers at work and several similarities struck me: the light sketch with more work put into some of the trickier areas, experimentation with different compositions, throwing out or completely removing bits, putting finisihing touches which change the whole although are little enough in themselves. What is useful that can come of this analogy? Here are some suggetions:- Training: An artist will frequently learn their own style through meticulous study of previous greats (whose great software is there for us to emmulate?). At first working from nature is important although more freedom and greater abstraction will come later. An artist must learn to see and understand - this is something which many software workers could do with applying. Aids: An artist has sketch pads for roughs or capture of structure or examples of detail. The organisation of these is often less than perfect - in software we have a better chance of providing this although currently our best attempts such as Lisp machines and environments like POPLOG are still very much less than perfect too. Aids for producing mockups - for instance cartoonists use sheets of shading which can be cut to fit the required area - in software we need some such things to allow us to prototype with hints at detail without putting it all in. Aids for throwing stuff away! How many novices or less than expert programmers cling to the stuff they've written when it needs throwing out and redesigning from scratch! This is like the advice given in school not to use an eraser - of course eventually the artist knows when it is worth using one but at first it is better to concentrate on developing the ability to create smoothly and without fiddling. Well I guess I've gone on long enough - I'd be pleased to reply to anyone interested in this point of view - thanks for reading this far! Caroline Knight cdfk@lb.hp.co.uk cdfk@hplb.csnet Tel: (0272) 799910 x4040 Telex: (0270) 449206 Fax: (0272) 790076 HPLabs, Hewlett Packard Ltd, Filton Rd, Stoke Gifford, BRISTOL BS16 1NY Everything I write is from me personally and does not represent Hewlett Packard in any way. ----------------------------------------------------------------