Editing Computer science (section)

==Etymology and scope==
{{see also|Informatics#Etymology}}

Although first proposed in 1956,<ref name="Tedre2014">{{cite book|last=Tedre|first=Matti|title=The Science of Computing: Shaping a Discipline|publisher=Taylor and Francis / CRC Press|year=2014}}</ref> the term "computer science" appears in a 1959 article in ''[[Communications of the ACM]]'',<ref name="Fine_1959">
{{cite journal
 |author=Louis Fine
 |year=1960
 |title=The Role of the University in Computers, Data Processing, and Related Fields
 |journal=Communications of the ACM
 |volume=2 |issue=9 |pages=7–14
 |doi=10.1145/368424.368427
|s2cid=6740821
 |doi-access=free
 }}</ref>
in which Louis Fein argues for the creation of a ''Graduate School in Computer Sciences'' analogous to the creation of [[Harvard Business School]] in 1921.<ref>{{cite web|title=Stanford University Oral History|work=Stanford Libraries |url=http://library.stanford.edu/guides/stanford-university-oral-history|publisher=Stanford University|access-date=May 30, 2013|archive-date=April 4, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404070555/http://library.stanford.edu/guides/stanford-university-oral-history|url-status=live}}</ref> Louis justifies the name by arguing that, like [[management science]], the subject is applied and interdisciplinary in nature, while having the characteristics typical of an academic discipline.<ref name="Fine_1959"/>
His efforts, and those of others such as [[numerical analyst]] [[George Forsythe]], were rewarded: universities went on to create such departments, starting with Purdue in 1962.<ref>[[Donald Knuth]] (1972). ''[http://www.stanford.edu/dept/ICME/docs/history/forsythe_knuth.pdf "George Forsythe and the Development of Computer Science"]''. ''Comms. ACM''. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020200802/http://www.stanford.edu/dept/ICME/docs/history/forsythe_knuth.pdf |date=October 20, 2013 }}</ref> Despite its name, a significant amount of computer science does not involve the study of computers themselves. Because of this, several alternative names have been proposed.<ref>{{cite web |author=Matti Tedre |year=2006 |url=http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_isbn_952-458-867-6/urn_isbn_952-458-867-6.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_isbn_952-458-867-6/urn_isbn_952-458-867-6.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=The Development of Computer Science: A Sociocultural Perspective |page=260 |access-date=December 12, 2014}}</ref> Certain departments of major universities prefer the term ''computing science'', to emphasize precisely that difference. Danish scientist [[Peter Naur]] suggested the term ''datalogy'',<ref>
{{cite journal
 |author=Peter Naur
 |year=1966
 |title=The science of datalogy
 |journal=Communications of the ACM
 |volume=9 |issue=7 |page=485
 |doi=10.1145/365719.366510
|s2cid=47558402
 |doi-access=free
 }}</ref> to reflect the fact that the scientific discipline revolves around data and data treatment, while not necessarily involving computers. The first scientific institution to use the term was the Department of Datalogy at the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1969, with Peter Naur being the first professor in datalogy. The term is used mainly in the Scandinavian countries. An alternative term, also proposed by Naur, is [[data science]]; this is now used for a [[multi-disciplinary]] field of data analysis, including statistics and databases.

In the early days of computing, a number of terms for the practitioners of the field of computing were suggested (albeit facetiously) in the ''Communications of the ACM''—''turingineer'', ''turologist'', ''flow-charts-man'', ''applied meta-mathematician'', and ''applied [[epistemologist]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |date=<!-- missing! --> |volume=1 |issue=4 |page=6| doi = 10.1145/368796.368802|last1=Weiss |first1=E.A. |title=Letters to the editor |journal= Communications of the ACM |last2=Corley |first2=Henry P.T. |s2cid=5379449 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Three months later in the same journal, ''comptologist'' was suggested, followed next year by ''hypologist''.<ref>Communications of the ACM 2(1):p.4</ref> The term ''computics'' has also been suggested.<ref>IEEE Computer 28(12): p.136</ref> {{anchor|Name of the field in Europe}}In Europe, terms derived from contracted translations of the expression "automatic information" (e.g. "{{lang|it|informazione automatica}}" in Italian) or "information and mathematics" are often used, e.g. {{lang|fr|informatique}} (French), {{lang|de|Informatik}} (German), {{lang|it|informatica}} (Italian, Dutch), {{lang|es|informática}} (Spanish, Portuguese), {{lang|sla|informatika}} ([[Slavic languages]] and [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]) or {{lang|el-latn|pliroforiki}} ({{lang|el|πληροφορική|italic=no}}, which means informatics) in [[Greek language|Greek]]. Similar words have also been adopted in the UK (as in the [[School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh]]).<ref>P. Mounier-Kuhn, ''L'Informatique en France, de la seconde guerre mondiale au Plan Calcul. L'émergence d'une science'', Paris, PUPS, 2010, ch. 3 & 4.</ref> "In the U.S., however, [[informatics]] is linked with applied computing, or computing in the context of another domain."<ref>{{cite web |last=Groth |first=Dennis P. |url=http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2010/2/69363-why-an-informatics-degree |title=Why an Informatics Degree? |date=February 2010 |work=Communications of the ACM |publisher=Cacm.acm.org |access-date=June 14, 2016 |archive-date=January 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111224014/https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2010/2/69363-why-an-informatics-degree/abstract |url-status=live }}</ref>

A folkloric quotation, often attributed to—but almost certainly not first formulated by—[[Edsger Dijkstra]], states that "computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes."<ref group=note>See the entry
"[[q:Computer science|Computer science]]" on Wikiquote for the history of this quotation.</ref> The design and deployment of computers and computer systems is generally considered the province of disciplines other than computer science. For example, the study of computer hardware is usually considered part of [[computer engineering]], while the study of commercial [[computer system]]s and their deployment is often called information technology or [[information system]]s. However, there has been exchange of ideas between the various computer-related disciplines. Computer science research also often intersects other disciplines, such as [[cognitive science]], [[computational linguistics|linguistics]], [[mathematics]], [[physics]], [[biology]], [[Earth science]], [[computational statistics|statistics]], [[philosophy]], and [[logic]].

Computer science is considered by some to have a much closer relationship with mathematics than many scientific disciplines, with some observers saying that computing is a mathematical science.<ref name=Denning/> Early computer science was strongly influenced by the work of mathematicians such as [[Kurt Gödel]], [[Alan Turing]], [[John von Neumann]], [[Rózsa Péter]] and [[Alonzo Church]] and there continues to be a useful interchange of ideas between the two fields in areas such as [[mathematical logic]], [[category theory]], [[domain theory]], and [[algebra]].<ref name="Tedre2014"/>

The relationship between computer science and software engineering is a contentious issue, which is further muddied by [[Software engineering#Suitability|disputes]] over what the term "software engineering" means, and how computer science is defined.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Tedre | first1 = M. | title = Computing as a Science: A Survey of Competing Viewpoints | doi = 10.1007/s11023-011-9240-4 | journal = Minds and Machines | volume = 21 | issue = 3 | pages = 361–387 | year = 2011 | s2cid = 14263916 }}</ref> [[David Parnas]], taking a cue from the relationship between other engineering and science disciplines, has claimed that the principal focus of computer science is studying the properties of computation in general, while the principal focus of software engineering is the design of specific computations to achieve practical goals, making the two separate but complementary disciplines.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Parnas | first1 = D.L. | journal = Annals of Software Engineering | volume = 6 | pages = 19–37 | year = 1998 | doi = 10.1023/A:1018949113292|title=Software engineering programmes are not computer science programmes| s2cid = 35786237 }}, p. 19: "Rather than treat software engineering as a subfield of computer science, I treat it as an element of the set, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, [...]"</ref>

The academic, political, and funding aspects of computer science tend to depend on whether a department is formed with a mathematical emphasis or with an engineering emphasis. Computer science departments with a mathematics emphasis and with a numerical orientation consider alignment with [[computational science]]. Both types of departments tend to make efforts to bridge the field educationally if not across all research.