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| Diversity of Computer
Science: |
It has been suggested that this article or section
be merged with Computer science.
Because of the youth of the discipline,
there are many alternative definitions of computer
science. Computer science can be seen either
as a science, a form of mathematics, or a new
discipline that cannot be categorized into pre-existing
frameworks.
Most people who study computer science go on
to become programmers, leading some to believe
that the discipline is the study of software
and programming. However most computer scientists
are interested in innovative or theoretical
aspects of the field that go well beyond programming,
and deeply into computability.
Core problems in defining computer science:
A major issue is deciding exactly
what it is that computer science covers. One
of the major areas of contention surrounds the
issue of computability. Computer science can
for example be defined as the study of what
can be computed (or automated) and how it can
be computed. There is a dispute over whether
this is defined in a mathematical or a physical
(mechanical) context.
In essence, mathematics shows us how to compute,
yet the mechanical provides what can be computed.
An adjunct to this issue is how
to define a computer in this context. It could
be a real physical machine with inherant weaknesses
and limitations, in which case those weaknesses
are a valid concern for study. Or, it could
be an idealized or theoretical machine in which
case practical limitations such as memory space
are not important.
Another issue is whether computer
science is scientific. Most sciences are concerned
with the study of the natural world, whereas
computer science studies abstractions and artificial
objects. However, artificial objects are usually
considered by philosophers as part of the natural
world.
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| Youth: |
Richard Feynmann pointed out that computer science is
young, and therefore more volatile than other sciences:
Computer science is not as old as physics;
it lags by a couple of hundred years. However, this
does not mean that there is significantly less on
the computer scientist's plate than on the physicist's:
younger it may be, but it has had a far more intense
upbringing!
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| ACM definition: |
According to the Association for Computing Machinery,
"The discipline of computing is the systematic
study of algorithmic processes that describe and transform
information, their theory, analysis, design, efficiency,
implementation, and application. The fundamental question
underlying all of computing is, 'What can be (efficiently)
automated?'" (Computing as a discipline, Communications
of the ACM, January 1989). The ACM's term "computing"
is defined as "computer science and engineering".
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| Computer science and other fields: |
The similarity or difference between computer science
and computer engineering and software engineering is
also an area of contention. Traditionally, the practice
of engineering has included the application of knowledge
from the physical sciences to help in the design of
products and systems, and thus the study of theories
of computation has not generally been included within
the scope of engineering. However, the growing ubiquity
of computers has fueled a change in the scope of modern
engineering. For example, the above ACM definition includes
computer engineering within its scope, and there are
embedded systems courses in some schools of electrical
engineering that include the study of models of computation[1].The
origins of computer science lie heavily in mathematics,
but unlike mathematics, computer science is often held
to be an experimental discipline.
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| Alternative Nomenclature for Computer
Science: |
Alternative names such as computing science or computation
science have been proposed, but the traditional name
remains the most common.
Danish scientist Peter Naur thus suggested the term
datalogy, to reflect the fact that the scientific
discipline revolves around data and data treatment,
while not necessarily involving computers. The first
scientific institution applying the datalogy term
was DIKU, the Department of Datalogy at the University
of Copenhagen, founded in 1969, with Peter Naur being
the first professor in datalogy. The term is used
mainly in the Nordic countries.
In the early days of computing, a number of terms
for the practitioners of the field of computing were
suggested in the Communications of the ACM 1(4):p.6
-- turingineer, turologist, flow-charts-man, applied
meta-mathematician, and applied epistemologist. Three
months later in the same journal, comptologist was
suggested, followed next year (CACM 2(1):p.4) by hypologist.
Recently the term computics has been suggested (IEEE
Computer 28(12):p.136).
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