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Re: PSEUDO-SCIENCE ?



I'll jump in with my two cents worth (or more).

(1) Regarding whether programming skills are of little value once the
language has changed...

My son is finishing his senior year of high school, and has already begun
working toward a computer science degree by taking college computer classes.
When he took his first programming class, the language was C++, a language I
have not used. He knew I had extensive programming experience in many
languages including assembly language. In fact, I taught computer courses
for many years including programming, numerical analysis, data structures,
etc. But I have no experience with the C++ language. Therefore, he would
not ask me questions when he got stuck with programs that "almost work."

Once when I heard him moaning and groaning I told him to let me see his
program and tell me what kind of problem he was having. Of course he
remarked, "What good would that do; you don't know C++?" But I managed to
get him to bring me a listing anyway. He'd been working on a bug for a
couple hours. I looked at it for less than five minutes and was able to
say, "You initialized this variable to zero, but you should have initialized
it to your first data value. As written, your program can't handle negative
data." It was a classis mistake; one I had seen many times grading programs
written in other languages. Now he brings "almost programs" to me too
quickly and I have to refuse to help him until he gets to the moaning and
groaning stage. I always find his errors quickly. I still don't do C++.

I don't know whether you can teach an old dog new tricks. But I know that
helping my son with his computer programming does not involve any new
tricks, so this old dog does just fine.

(2) Regarding whether computer science is science...

I'll stay out of social science, family and consumer sciences, etc. and just
stick with computer science versus physics, chemistry, biology.

I think classic science, applied science, and engineering have become so
entwined I cannot tell where one ends and the other begins. I've had a
couple BA physics graduates continue after Bluffton College to get PhDs in
"applied physics." The kind of work they did in graduate school was hardly
different than what I did, but my degree was called "chemical physics."
Sometimes, for days on end, I wrote computer code, or engineered an
electrical or mechanical device. I thought I was doing science. I'm not
sure I can tell the difference between a computer scientist trying to make a
better mass storage device and an analytical chemist trying to make a better
HPLC detector. Analytical chemists are scientists aren't they?

Also, for what it's worth, we have two computer degrees at Bluffton (as do
many colleges). One is computer science; the other is information systems.
The computer science degree requires calculus, physics, electronics.
Graduates are prepared both for engineering graduate programs as well as
programming careers. The information systems degree requires minimal
science/math, but does require economics, accounting, finance, etc. Since
Bluffton is a small college, many disciplines are joined into
multidiscipline departments. The computer science curriculum is part of the
Science Department; the information systems curriculum is a joint venture
between the Science Department and the Economic, Business, Accounting
Department.


Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D. Phone/voice-mail: 419-358-3270
Professor of Chemistry & Physics FAX: 419-358-3323
Chairman, Science Department E-Mail edmiston@bluffton.edu
Bluffton College
280 West College Avenue
Bluffton, OH 45817