I can assure you that software you've came to value and rely on was written by "computer scientists".
So yes, your comment does sound like trolling. That or you're just completely misinformed.
I use TCP/IP but I did not choose it. There were many competing protocols. It just became the default.
I am not going to argue about this but many of the folks who wrote the software that I actively seek out and value had degrees in Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and/or Physics. I might use different software than most users.
The authors were not CS majors. It is what it is. Maybe this means nothing. But to me it means, at least, CS is not a prerequisite.
I am not denying the contribution of Computer Science as a field or the work computer scientists. And I understand why kids major in CS. All good.
I am just referring to the practice of writing software. I would question anyone who argued one must have a CS degree to write great software.
So I assume you use linux or BSD? I can assure you both of those were created primarily by computer scientists.
>I use TCP/IP but I did not choose it. There were many competing protocols. It just became the default.
Who do you think designs these competing protocols?
>many of the folks who wrote the software that I actively seek out and value had degrees in Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and/or Physics. I might use different software than most users.
And yet this software you seek out runs on an operating system designed by computer scientists, compiles with compilers designed by computer scientists, and is distributed via protocols designed by computer scientists.
> But to me it means, at least, CS is not a prerequisite.
Who said CS was a prerequisite for anything? Most of the venerable algorithms we study in computer science weren't designed by CS majors because CS wasn't a major when the algorithms' designers were in college.
>I am just referring to the practice of writing software. I would question anyone who argued one must have a CS degree to write great software.
Of course great software can be written by someone without a CS degree. John Carmack doesn't have a CS degree. Donald Knuth doesn't have a CS degree. John Backus, Grace Hopper, John von Neumann, Alan Kay, and most of the other CS luminaries didn't have CS degrees. I have literally never met anyone who would argue that a CS degree is necessary to write great software.
You've changed your argument from "I have never used any software written by a 'computer scientist' that I came to value and rely on", and "I do not believe that a computer science degree is of any significance in terms of the ability to write good software" to "there exists great software written by people without CS degrees."
You've moved from a arguing an absurd and utterly false point, to constructing a straw man.
To your earlier point: "computer science degree is of any significance in terms of the ability to write good software".
In pursuing a CS degree you will engage in in depth study of the algorithms and data structures necessary to create complicated software. In order for someone who didn't major in CS to create complicated software, they must either study these algorithms and data structures on their own, or use a library written by someone else who has.
