Up to the ~'60s gave us a vast theoretical foundation, and from then on we toyed with it, endlessly rediscovering it (worst case) or slightly prodding forward (best case), trying to turn this body of knowledge into something useful while accreting it into platforms of code, copper and silicon. My hope is that the next step will eventually be for some of us to stop our prototyping, think about what matters, and build stuff this time, not as a hyperactive yet legacy addicted child, but as a grown up, forward-thinking body that understands it's just not about a funny toy or a monolithic throwaway tool that will end up lasting decades, but a field that has a purpose and a responsibility.
To correct the quote:
Computer science is not an abstract form of engineering. Software (and hardware in the case it's made to run software) engineering is leveraging CS in the context of constraints imposed by reality.
> Any more than is strictly necessary to perform the given task.
Easy to say, but hard to define up front when 'task' is an OS + applications + browser + the hardware that supports it ;-)
This[0] is the typical scenario I'm hoping we would build a habit of doing.
To correct the quote:
Computer science is not an abstract form of engineering. Software (and hardware in the case it's made to run software) engineering is leveraging CS in the context of constraints imposed by reality.
> Any more than is strictly necessary to perform the given task.
Easy to say, but hard to define up front when 'task' is an OS + applications + browser + the hardware that supports it ;-)
This[0] is the typical scenario I'm hoping we would build a habit of doing.
[0]: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Negative_2000_Lin...