Newsgroups: comp.edu
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: "Expertise"
Message-ID: <1989Apr4.163202.356@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <7531@thorin.cs.unc.edu> <3241@goofy.megatest.UUCP> <405@ntcsd1.UUCP> <18764@joyce.istc.sri.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 89 16:32:02 GMT

In article <18764@joyce.istc.sri.com> gds@spam.istc.sri.com (Greg Skinner) writes:
>I won't claim that a knowledge of CS theory (or any other theory, for
>that matter) conveys upon the student a total understanding of the
>subject, but I believe a good understanding of theory is as important
>as a good understanding of the applications...

As Knuth (?) said, "the purpose of theory is insight, not theorems".
Insight is valuable.  Unfortunately, an awful lot of theory courses tend
to concentrate on teaching theorems.
-- 
Welcome to Mars!  Your         |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
passport and visa, comrade?    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu