There's also the issue that we're talking about CS degrees - not CS in the abstract.

Agreed.

I can feel my pathological hatred of software development analogy/metaphor coming on :-)

Yeah, i can understand that. I hope the analogy worked for you more or less. All I was trying to get at is that not knowing the algortihm to calculate sin() correctly and efficiently on my favourite CPU doesnt stop me from using the function when its provided by the standard libraries to solve simpler problems like whether that tree in the back yard will fall on my house when it gets cut down.

As an aside does anybody know if Shell sort has been fully analysed yet? I recall reading Knuth where he said that Shell Sort has stubbornly resisted complete analysis. (IE its not know what the optimal intervals are for the different passes over different data sizes etc....)

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$world=~s/war/peace/g

In reply to Re^3: Mathematics eq CompSci by demerphq
in thread Mathematics eq CompSci by kiat

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