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Comment by Ifkaluva | Hacker News Reader

I seem to remember this specific class at the CMU School of Computer Science being described as a “weed-out class”.

When I took the theory of computation class at CMU in the mid-80s it was in the philosophy department. The professor knew almost nothing about actual computers. Which was pretty cool, honestly.

"Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes."

Usually attributed to Dijkstra.

> When I took the theory of computation class at CMU in the mid-80s it was in the philosophy department.

To be fair, theory of computation is more logic/proofs/formalism than what is mistakenly associated with CS nowadays - programming. Besides isn't everything just philosophy at the end of that day?

> The professor knew almost nothing about actual computers.

The foundations of theory of computation were laid before actual computers.

> Which was pretty cool, honestly.

I can't imagine my philosophy professors teaching theory of computation as they too didn't know anything about computers. But I'm sure they would have made it interesting.

>philosophy at the end of the day More like DIscrete Math

I always thought it should be called “ComputING Science” as opposed to “ComputER Science”.

I am old enough to remember when it was 15-199, taught by Steven Rudich, titled "How to think like a computer scientist".

They had to run it for a few years before they realized CS kids who did poorly in the class dropped the major - the implicit signal being "you don't know how to think like a computer scientist".

Theory is certainly a weed-out class. I think algorithms is certainly more difficult for a dedicated student tho.

It is indeed a weed-out class for the CS majors. It's fairly difficult the whole way through, and the difficulty jump afterwards for required classes is much more manageable. I never struggled with a required CS class after I managed to get an A in this one.

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