What is Computer Science?

摘要

I've been thinking about the meaning of the January "What is CS" thread on the SIGCSE email list. Like many of you, I got behind reading it, and in the back of my mind, I was afraid as I caught up that it might degenerate into that special hell demonstrated on so many newsgroup and Slashdot threads — a "discussion" gradually dominated by the most polar, loud, and least self-disciplined contributors. I need not have worried. The discussion was entirely reasonable. I would argue that the many positions shared the idea of a sort of spectrum of Computer Science with "science" on the one end and "engineering" on the other. In the comparisons between science and engineering, I was curious to see if the above Dijkstra quote would pop up, and ultimately it did, although it came out in a tone more of reflection than combat. My sense is that the Dijkstra quote has not aged well.