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From: kludge@pyr.gatech.EDU (Scott Dorsey)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Computer Science: where it belongs
Message-ID: <4422@pyr.gatech.EDU>
Date: Mon, 9-Nov-87 19:42:50 EST
Article-I.D.: pyr.4422
Posted: Mon Nov  9 19:42:50 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Nov-87 06:46:39 EST
References: <469@ndsuvax.UUCP> <16118@clyde.ATT.COM> <180@spock.UUCP>
Reply-To: kludge@pyr.UUCP (Scott Dorsey)
Organization: Georgia College Of Universal Knowledge
Lines: 33

In article <180@spock.UUCP> paul@spock.UUCP (Paul Parry) writes:
>Maybe Computer Science should be in its own school as well.  It bears a
>similarity to architecture as being in between art and science, using
>both artistic creativity and scientific principles.
>
>Now that I think about it, isn't that what engineering is?  Now we're back
>where we started.

    Yes, this is what engineering is, but it's not what is taught at
engineering schools.  It is very hard to instill an aesthetic sense in
a person.  Engineering schools (this one included), tend to teach the
science and expect one to pick up the technique and the art automatically.
This doesn't always happen.  We graduate MSEE's who don't know how to
solder, and who wouldn't recognize a good amplifier design from a bad one.
It is hard to explain elegance; all that one can do is show lots of
examples and hope that one picks it up.
   Computer science programs for undergraduates are pretty heavy on
technique when compared with EE programs.  An attempt is made to point
out what programming style is.  This doesn't guarantee that it will
make good programmers, or good scientists, and the emphasis on programming
or science is a choice that must me made by the school.  In a similar
way, English programs can concentrate on the techniques of writing, or
on knowledge of the existing body of literature.  It should be pointed out
that knowing literature makes one a better writer, and being able to write
permits one to understand the writing of others.

S. Dorsey
(A former English major, now ICS major, who can solder)
-- 
Scott Dorsey   Kaptain_Kludge
SnailMail: ICS Programming Lab, Georgia Tech, Box 36681, Atlanta, Georgia 30332
Internet:  kludge@pyr.gatech.edu
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