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Computer science should only be offered as a minor. You can major in biology, minor in computer science. Major in art, minor in computer science. But you can't

Computer science should only be offered as a minor. You can major in biology, minor in computer science. Major in art, minor in computer science. But you can't get a degree in CS. The way university is structured, it would be nearly impossible to minor in CS and learn anything low-level or advanced like computer architecture or operating systems. Perhaps you can push out a desirable employee with a practical knowledge of programming, but could you really educate true "software engineers" via a minor?

deleted 14y ago
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nightski 14y ago
I would actually doubt the usefulness of minors in nearly any subject (holding 2 myself).
webreac 14y ago
This opinion about CS minor is not controversial. We are almost unanimous to say it is stupid. AFAIK, automated pretty formatter is not controversial. I wonder if your opinion about pure functional language is controversial. Thank you for bringing to light some real controversy. In particular the old one about compiler optimisation. See for reference http://books.google.fr/books?id=6kHs4s-79bkC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=Niklaus+Wirth+compiler+speed&source=bl&ots=B2uVRI7HNH&sig=dgkyMw6t-Jps_qsUfmG1Y5W9gKk&hl=fr#v=onepage&q=Niklaus%20Wirth%20compiler%20speed&f=false http://books.google.fr/books?id=6kHs4s-79bkC&pg=PA43&#38...
mkopinsky 14y ago
I am a bioengineer by degree, software developer by profession. Most valuable skill that I use in the day-to-day is thinking like a programmer, and understanding how to make sense of data in an intelligent way. But ultimately, this is all about solving problems - programming is simply a tool towards this end. Go up to a carpenter (and I mean a well-trained carpenter, the kind who carries more than just the PHP hammer [0]) and ask him which carpentry technique to use, and he'll tell you the right answer in a flash. But ask him whether carpentry is even the right approach for a given problem, and I wish you good luck. Programming skills are important, but a deep knowledge of the problem domain is sometimes far more critical to being able to actually solve the problem. [0] http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/06/the-php-singularity.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/06/the-php-singularity...

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

nightski 14y ago

I would actually doubt the usefulness of minors in nearly any subject (holding 2 myself).

webreac 14y ago

This opinion about CS minor is not controversial. We are almost unanimous to say it is stupid. AFAIK, automated pretty formatter is not controversial. I wonder if your opinion about pure functional language is controversial. Thank you for bringing to light some real controversy. In particular the old one about compiler optimisation. See for reference http://books.google.fr/books?id=6kHs4s-79bkC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=Niklaus+Wirth+compiler+speed&source=bl&ots=B2uVRI7HNH&sig=dgkyMw6t-Jps_qsUfmG1Y5W9gKk&hl=fr#v=onepage&q=Niklaus%20Wirth%20compiler%20speed&f=false http://books.google.fr/books?id=6kHs4s-79bkC&pg=PA43&#38...

mkopinsky 14y ago

I am a bioengineer by degree, software developer by profession. Most valuable skill that I use in the day-to-day is thinking like a programmer, and understanding how to make sense of data in an intelligent way. But ultimately, this is all about solving problems - programming is simply a tool towards this end. Go up to a carpenter (and I mean a well-trained carpenter, the kind who carries more than just the PHP hammer [0]) and ask him which carpentry technique to use, and he'll tell you the right answer in a flash. But ask him whether carpentry is even the right approach for a given problem, and I wish you good luck. Programming skills are important, but a deep knowledge of the problem domain is sometimes far more critical to being able to actually solve the problem. [0] http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/06/the-php-singularity.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/06/the-php-singularity...