[PLUG] Slightly OT: PCC software engineering program

[Jeff Schwaber]

> This appears false.  As you yourself have already pointed out, the
> domain of CS is theoretical, hence it is not as concerned with teaching
> the practical skills of development.  The software course at PCC was
> largely practical, and design was emphasized, quite practically, as a
> means of writing software efficiently, not as the Way Of Enlightenment.
> It seems to me that the practitioners of CS would have little to say
> against that approach, and that software engineering is secondary for
> them only because of the scope of their domain.

Ah, but Software Engineering _would be_ the domain of Computer Science,
if it were empirical and could therefore be studied theoretically (and
therefore tested empirically).

In fact, many CS programs have attempted to do this. The fact that they
haven't succeeded says something.

Jeff