Re: Can you learn computer science from a school?

Raffael Cavallaro wrote:
On 2007-05-17 19:21:05 -0400, Paul Wallich <pw@xxxxxxxxx> said:

So new machines may extend the range of the actually computable, as opposed to Computable.

Or, to put it in other words, future machines may extend the range of the efficiently computable, as opposed to the merely computable. But this of course is just arguing my original point, that the real-world constraints of real-world machines necessarily influence algorithm design, and so Computer Science is concerned with these real-world constraints as well.

I think we're in violent agreement, but I'd put some caveats on your statement.

First, "efficiently" computable isn't quite the right word, because efficiency typically goes to the resources required, compared to some ideal, rather than "can I run this computation in less than the expected life of my computing system?". "feasibly" computable might be a better way of putting it.

Second, only part of computer science is concerned with those real-world constraints. There are also issues of algorithm design that are essentially orthogonal to the machine constraints (e.g. the number of comparisons made during a sort).

So I think it's best to say that computer science is not divorced from the real world, and yet they don't spend every moment in close proximity.

paul
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