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Both my undergrad and grad education did not train me to program. I did learn computer science though. Even then... mathematical and algorithmic proofs are i

• cratermoon 6y ago
  CS is definitely applied mathematics. Whether or not all of the maths that Dijkstra thought were essential to programming are much use in the day-to-day business of programming is debatable. His curmudgeonly view of our field, from the linked paper: 'As economics is known as "The Miserable Science", software engineering should be known as "The Doomed Discipline", doomed because it cannot even approach its goal since its goal is self-contradictory'
• darig 6y ago
  > Both my undergrad and grad education did not train me to program. I did learn computer science though. Same here, but they did toss me into the deep end and force me to prove myself. I've always thought of higher education as more of a filter than a press. > CS has always been applied math as much as physics is. Completely agree... I spent my college days taking courses that counted towards both a CS and Math degree. I'm glad I did. My favorite anecdote is making basic paint programs to flood fill the area of a shape... using CPU algorithms, filling a circle is only a few lines of assembler code while filling a triangle is a nightmare. Using a GPU, triangles are native while converting a circle to a set of triangles is a nightmare. CS has always been as much about physical hardware and operating systems as it is about software.