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From: colonel@sunybcs.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: theory and practice in C.S.
Message-ID: <2452@sunybcs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 4-Nov-85 20:06:29 EST
Article-I.D.: sunybcs.2452
Posted: Mon Nov  4 20:06:29 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 5-Nov-85 23:36:31 EST
References: <827@dataio.Dataio.UUCP> <2392@sunybcs.UUCP> <260@yetti.UUCP>
Organization: Save the Dodoes Foundation
Lines: 35

["You saved my life, Captain Buffalo!  Have a CIGAR!"]

>                                                    With a few notable 
> exceptions (such as hash-coding), it seems that almost all the "good
> stuff" in computing evolved in theoretically-oriented research environments
> (often academic), i.e. out of the efforts of people involved in doing
> computer science.
> Ada! (and what ever happened to Jovial by the way?).
> and intellectual insights of DoD's great achievments in this area: Cobol
> exactly they failed, Colonel,   [END OF ARTICLE]

Looks like this was written on a sinking ship....

Well, yes, Cobol!  A perfect illustration.  When a new idea works well
in practice, like WHILE-loops, theory pronounces it a good idea, and
explains why.  If theory cannot explain why, as with Cobol, it is reduced
to sneering at it (I name no names (but his initials are E.D.!)).  And
if a theoretical idea works badly in practice, no explanation is wanted;
nobody wants to hear about it any more.

I'm not talking now about the theoretical research that compares
disk-scheduling algorithms or ease of using text editors; this is
obviously valuable.  It's the theory of programming I mean.  And
just because an idea comes out of a "theoretically-oriented research
environment" (university) doesn't make it a product of theory.  The
people who do computer science are practitioners--they have to be.
A researcher who strives to be purely theoretical is often just an
obstacle to progress.  At the least, he's trying to maintain the old
distinction between theory and practice in a field where they're
inseparable.
-- 
Col. G. L. Sicherman
UU: ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel
CS: colonel@buffalo-cs
BI: csdsicher@sunyabva