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0 pointsdspillett5y ago0 comments

> a "real computer scientist," whatever that means

At university we would say that computer science was the art, where programming was the craft[1]. It is probably fairer to state that programming is an application of the science.

[1] Though with less of a sneery tone than used when people said "mathematics is the art where computer science is the craft"

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mumblemumble5y ago

I think that this might be exploring the analogy's breaking point.

It can be quite easy to draw a clean line between theoreticians and implementors in other fields. Biologists and veterinarians, physicists and engineers, etc. But who was the last major computer science theoretician who wasn't also a skilled programmer or system architect (or both)? Alonzo Church?

segfaultbuserr5y ago

After looking through all the Turing Award winners, my answer is Stephen Cook - a CS mathematician who did nothing on engineering, discovered the concept of NP-completeness.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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mumblemumble5y ago

I think that this might be exploring the analogy's breaking point.

segfaultbuserr5y ago

After looking through all the Turing Award winners, my answer is Stephen Cook - a CS mathematician who did nothing on engineering, discovered the concept of NP-completeness.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse