From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_20,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 109fba,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Roy Grimm Subject: Re: Any research putting c above ada? Date: 1997/05/05 Message-ID: <336DF13F.41C6@cca.rockwell.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 239529425 References: <5ih6i9$oct$1@waldorf.csc.calpoly.edu> <5k60au$gig@bcrkh13.bnr.ca> <33674E4C.446B@cca.rockwell.com> <5k88b3$340@bcrkh13.bnr.ca> <5k8hui$1k3g@uni.library.ucla.edu> <336A0E5E.446B@magellan.bgm.link.com> Organization: Rockwell Collins, Inc. Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.ada Date: 1997-05-05T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: > I always understood that: > > 1) Computer Science is research into how to make computing work > (way-out, useless things like multitasking and fault tolerance, > 15 years ago); Hmmm... If I'm not mistaken, multitasking has been done since the mid 1960's. If I remember right, the IBM System/360 was one of the first "multitasking" systems. The mid 60's was 30 years ago (unless my math is wrong). And fault tolerance? Do you honestly think that computers are the first systems to have fault tolerance engineering applied to them? The science of fault tolerance predates computers by a very large margin. Just because the PC operating systems are finally picking up the ball on multitasking and fault tolerance doesn't mean that it's an entirely new science. Multitasking and fault tolerance are always being studied, but they had already been put into practical applicaiton in the early 80's and had been there for years. > 2) Software Engineering is applying Computer Science to real > system design and development, selecting the best approach > to provide the needed functions within the resource constraints > (like any engineering); Now that, I will agree with you on. I think you pretty much summed up what software engineering is in relation to computer science. > Some "real" engineers (hardware/EE engineers) who write code often > don't care about quality so long as it works, but there are > genuine software engineers -- even computer scientists -- in > that discipline too. In any group (computer scientists, software engineers, other engineers) you will find people who are meticulous enough to do it right the first time, but you will also find people who aren't. > The trouble is that most universities have a CS Department, but > no distinct Software Engineering department. This is like having > the Physics department teach Civil Engineering, or vice versa. I couldn't agree with you more. However, I think we will all have a battle to get the engineering colleges to admit that software engineering should be another course of study in their schools. There are some who will agree and some who will not. I believe that we will see software engineering programs implemented in time. There are already some institutions which offer a software engineering "track" in addition to a normal program in CompSci. (I've seen it in the literature for the University of Iowa's graduate program in Computer Science.) -- Voicing my own opinion, not speaking as a company representative... Roy A. Grimm Rockwell Collins Avionics Cedar Rapids, Iowa ragrimm@cca.rockwell.com