Curriculum '78—is computer science really that unmathematical?
Anthony Ralston, Mary M. Conlin Shaw · Communications of the ACM · 1980
If computer science had not developed--significantly-as a science in the ten years between Curriculum '68 [2] and Curriculum '78 [3], then perhaps all those people who wondered if computer science was really a discipline would have been correct.In 1968 computer science was searching for but had not yet found much in the way of the principles and theoretical underpinnings which characterize a (mature) science.Ten years later, there is nothing laughable about calling computer science a science.This decade has seen major advances in the theory of computation and in the utility of theoretical results in practical settings.The rapid growth of the field of computational complexity has greatly increased our ability to analyze algorithms.And perhaps most significantly, we have finally started to make real progress in developing principles and theories for the design and verification of algorithms and programs.Are these changes evident in Curriculum '78? Sadly, no.That curriculum only lends support to the equation