horne-scott@cs.yale.edu (Scott Horne) (05/15/91)
In article <1991May12.224331.20754@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU>, wangh@beasley.CS.ORST.EDU (Haiyan Wang) writes: <In article <TSAO.91May12145829@bacchus.tcad.ee.ufl.edu> tsao@tcad.ee.ufl.edu ( Tsao) writes: <> <>Interesting, would you tell me what is "Computer Science" ? < <I think there are plenty Computer Science major netter out there to answer <this question. Well, I'm a computer-"science" major (with a second major in Chinese language and literature), and I'm the one who originally raised this question on SCC. (Follow-ups to `comp.edu', please.) >They should be able to state the difference between computer <science and computer engineering than I do as I am majoring in physics. Fine. There's a difference between computer engineering and what is called computer science, but that doesn't mean that the term `computer science' is an accurate description of the field. You keep avoiding the question. Please tell us: What is scientific about computer "science"? --Scott -- Scott Horne ...!{harvard,cmcl2,decvax}!yale!horne horne@cs.Yale.edu SnailMail: Box 7196 Yale Station, New Haven, CT 06520 203 436-1817 Residence: Rm 1817 Silliman College, Yale Univ "All reactionaries are paper tigers." --Mao Zedong
stlin@stevelin.Eng.Sun.COM (Steven Lin) (05/16/91)
In article <1991May14.190239.1330@cs.yale.edu> (Scott Horne) writes: >In article <1991May12.224331.20754@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU> (Haiyan Wang) writes: ><In article <TSAO.91May12145829@bacchus.tcad.ee.ufl.edu> ( Tsao) writes: ><> ><>Interesting, would you tell me what is "Computer Science" ? > >Well, I'm a computer-"science" major (with a second major in Chinese language >and literature), and I'm the one who originally raised this question on SCC. > Scott once told the netters that he is a scholar, now he says he is working on C S toward "B S". May be tomorrow he will say he is a scientist.:-) >>They should be able to state the difference between computer ><science and computer engineering than I do as I am majoring in physics. The difference is obvious: Computer engineering major students have to meet the requirement of hardware design courses (of course software courses too). On the other hand, the CS students do not have the requirement to take hardware design courses. This does not mean that a CS major has no capability to take hardware courses and later becomes a hardware designer. And a CE major can be a software designer if he wishes to do so. The difference tells that CS is oriented to software and CE is oriented on hardware, and the faculty and equipment will be significant different in schools for these two fields.
manis@cs.ubc.ca (Vincent Manis) (05/23/91)
In article <1991May14.190239.1330@cs.yale.edu> horne-scott@cs.yale.edu (Scott Horne) writes: >You keep avoiding the question. Please tell us: What is scientific about >computer "science"? Science involves the collection of data and the development and refinement of models. Not all of computer science follows this paradigm (the engineering design/analysis paradigm and the mathematical proof paradigm are also common), but there is certainly a strong scientific element in those parts of computer science which are concerned with empirical methods. For example, consider the working set model: Denning derived it from studying data on paging traffic. In turn, the model caused new systems to be built, each of which resulted in further revisions to the model. AI tends to follow similar paradigms. More recently, parallel complexity theorists have tended to build labs in order to perform experiments which are aimed at refining their models. -- \ Vincent Manis <manis@cs.ubc.ca> "There is no law that vulgarity and \ Department of Computer Science literary excellence cannot coexist." /\ University of British Columbia -- A. Trevor Hodge / \ Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1W5 (604) 228-2394