Is Computer Science Dead?
That's the question a British lecturer is asking at the British Computing Society
Web site. You can find Neil McBride's opinion piece
here.
McBride calls out issues we've chewed over before -- including the decline
in computer science enrollment at U.S. universities and efforts
to bolster interest. But the piece comes back to a visceral theme: In an
era of visual programming languages where 8-year-old kids can program robots
with a drag-and-drop interface, is there really any room left for steely-eyed
assembly coders?
McNeil has a point. But his descriptions of the halcyon day of programming
also bring to mind a favorite quote, from political humorist P.J. O'Rourke in
his book All the Trouble in the World:
"In general, life is better than it ever has been, and if you think that,
in the past, there was some golden age of pleasure and plenty to which you would,
if you were able, transport yourself, let me say one single word: 'dentistry.'"
What do you think? Should we be pining for the good old days of bare metal
programming, where men were men and coders wrote in assembly language? Or can
we expect .NET and managed code and a parade of other well-intentioned abstractions
to carry us forward to a brighter day?
Let me hear your thoughts at [email protected].
Posted by Michael Desmond on 03/14/2007