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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,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: 103376,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public From: dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) Subject: Re: Software Engineering is not a hoax... (was Re: Any research putting c above ada?) Date: 1997/05/25 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 243845678 References: <33859489.7FB8@spam.innocon.com> <3385B67B.1439@msim.co.uk.spamstop> <5m4idq$oc4@bcrkh13.bnr.ca> Organization: New York University Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.ada Date: 1997-05-25T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: John said <> Hard to see how anyone could use that word here, I don't see any intended literary effect in the juxtaposition of the words computer and science. Now it may be that there is a contradiction in terms, but even there the issue to me is not whether there is a contradiction in terms but merely whether CS is indeed a science. My education is in "real" science (all my degrees are in chemistry), and I must say I don't see much in CS that I would normally consider to be science, in particular, there seems to be almost no place for empirical observation and the application of the scientific method to generate new theories matching current observations. To me CS is much more similar to classical engineering fields (which of course are also based on "solid mathematical principles"). P.S. yes, I know, some American dictionaries these days allow the usage of oxymoron to simply mean "contradiction in terms", but it seems a pity to lose its original meaning!