Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!peregrine!elroy!ames!amdahl!pacbell!pbhya!whh
From: whh@pbhya.PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Unix editors
Message-ID: <17245@pbhya.PacBell.COM>
Date: 29 Jul 88 05:47:50 GMT
References: <272@jackson.UUCP> <810021@hpsemc.HP.COM> <1932@stpstn.UUCP>
Organization: Pacific * Bell, Oakland, CA
Lines: 33

In article <1932@stpstn.UUCP>, aad@stpstn.UUCP (Anthony A. Datri) writes:
> 
> 
> The CMU CS department does not offer a CS undergraduate degree.  The reason
> publicly given is that they don't feel you can learn enough about "Computer
> Science" in 4 years to warrant a degree.  So I, just like everyone else,
> got my degree in "Applied Math/CS track".  My experience there was that
> the whole education, and indeed "Computer Science" as I perceive it, has
> little or nothing to do with computers anymore.  You spend your time

Please strike the "anymore."  The problem you have described was common
in the late sixties as well--and I assume the intervening years also.
At many institutions "CS" amounted to a math major with a few computer-
related courses thrown in.  Useless, unless you're going to be a
"Computer Scientist" (presumably with a Ph.D. teaching at a university).

The unusual place was UC Berkeley--where there were 2 "CS" majors.  One
was as you've described in the math dept.  The other was in EE and had
a lot more emphasis on computers.  This amounted to a fair amount of
programming, some theory, and a good dose of hardware.  As a working
programmer, I've found over the years that having a feel for hardware
has been a real help.

The root cause of the problems associated with CS is probably American
universities aversion to anything truly useful.

     --Hal

=========================================================================
  Hal Heydt                             |    "Hafnium plus Holmium is
  Analyst, Pacific*Bell                 |     one-point-five, I think."
  415-645-7708                          |       --Dr. Jane Robinson
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