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As an outsider (i studied physics), I always thought computer science was NOT about programming. I find it fascinating that you CS people can work on the founda
by ignifero 16y ago
As an outsider (i studied physics), I always thought computer science was NOT about programming. I find it fascinating that you CS people can work on the foundations of computation, like P=NP (see, only know the basics). Programming to me seemed a very pragmatic thing: you learn as you go. Need to build a parser? read parsing theory. Need to do text mining? learn it. In that sense, i don't think there are "CS-educated programmers". While everyone can benefit from taking an introductory course, in the end everyone becomes self-taught
- gte910h 16y agoWhile it is true, computing requires repetitive, continual retraining, I disagree about the parsing/logic/etc stuff. In class you're taught principles of X Y or Z and how they relate to Q V and R, or at least they do. When haphazardly picking up skills, you often do not come across the greater, abstract ideals, and instead see craftsman level heuristics to solve a problem. For your example, the parser thing, recognizing if you need an parser, a regular expression engine, or a simulator is a pretty heady, abstract thing for some cases. Very few people would ever educate themselves on the difference between the cases just to do so. But that difference is one of the ones a college trained CS grad should have.