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From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: "Expertise"
Message-ID: <16695@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 3 Apr 89 14:53:25 GMT
References: <7531@thorin.cs.unc.edu> <3241@goofy.megatest.UUCP> <16081@princeton.Princeton.EDU>
Distribution: usa
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 32

In article <16081@princeton.Princeton.EDU> rks@notecnirp.Princeton.EDU
(Ramesh Sitaraman) writes:
>Computer Science is a study of computation, which is essentially
>mathematical in nature. ... Of course I understand the urge of many
>mediocre hackers trying to pass [themselves] off as scientist[s].
>But they deceive only themselves. Maybe next time you can try
>convincing physicists that they should really be studying the effect
>of VO5 on car paint instead of working all those "useless" theories.

Wrong attack :-) ---convince chemists; only you will not have to.  The
effect of VO5, salad dressing, milk, vinegar, acid rain, ... on car
paint is the domain of study of industrial chemists (those employed by
car companies, that is).  It is not unimportant: would you want your
car's paint to wash off after a pigeon did its thing?  (Pigeon dung
does attack car finishes, and the waxes and paints must be made resistant.)

Maybe the word `scientist' has as much meaning now as the title
`sanitation engineer' slapped onto the janitor's job.

At any rate, I say that `Computer Science' is not a science.  Computing
has, like many (most? all?) other disciplines, split into theoretical
and applied branches.  The split is not as well-defined as in (to
continue with the above) chemistry, but it is there.  Theoretical
computing is indeed a branch of mathematics; and I suppose that makes
the theorists mathematicians.  Programming, on the other hand, is
halfway between an art and an engineering discipline.  What does that
make the programmers?  And of course, as with other subjects, the
fringes of computing involve many other disciplines.  How else did we
get into these diatribes on `expertise'?
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris