"[Computers] are developing so rapidly that even computer scientists cannot keep up with them. It must be bewildering to most mathematicians and engineers. [...] In spite of the diversity of the applications, the methods of attacking the difficult problems with computers show a great unity, and the name of Computer Sciences is being attached to the discipline as it emerges. It must be understood, however, that this is still a young field whose structure is still nebulous. The student will find a great many more problems than answers." (George Forsythe, "Engineering students must learn both computing and mathematics", 1961)
"I consider computer science to be the art and science of exploiting automatic digital computers, and of creating the technology necessary to understand their use. It deals with such related problems as the design of better machines using known components:, the design and implementation of adequate software systems for communication between man and machine, and the design and analysis of methods of representing information by abstract symbols and of processes for manipulating these symbols." (George E Forsythe, "Stanford University's Program in Computer Science", 1965)
"Computer science is a restless infant and its progress depends as much on shifts in point of view as on the orderly development of our current concepts." (Alan Perlis, "The Synthesis of Algorithmic Systems", 1966)
"Computer science is at once abstract and pragmatic. The focus on actual computers introduces the pragmatic component: our central questions are economic ones like the relations among speed, accuracy, and cost of a proposed computation, and the hardware and software organization required. The (often) better understood questions of existence and theoretical computability - however fundamental - remain in the background. On the other hand, the medium of computer science - information - is an abstract one. The meaning of symbols and numbers may change from application to application, either in mathematics or in computer science. Like mathematics, one goal of computer science is to create a basic structure in terms of inherently defined concepts that is independent of any particular application." (George E Forsythe, "What to do till the computer scientist comes", 1968)
"Without real experience in using the computer to get useful results the computer science major is apt to know all about the marvelous tool except how to use it. Such a person is a mere technician, skilled in manipulating the tool but with little sense of how and when to use it for its basic purposes." (Richard Hamming, "One Man's View of Computer Science", 1969)
"Numerical analysis has begun to look a little square in the computer science setting, and numerical analysts are beginning to show signs of losing faith in themselves. Their sense of isolation is accentuated by the present trend towards abstraction in mathematics departments which makes for an uneasy relationship." (James H Wilkinson, "Some Comments from a Numerical Analyst", 1971)
"Software engineering is the part of computer science which is too difficult for the computer scientist." (Friedrich Bauer, "Software Engineering." Information Processing: Proceedings of the IFIP Congress, 1971)
"Computer science is an empirical discipline. [...] Each new machine that is built is an experiment. Actually constructing the machine poses a question to nature; and we listen for the answer by observing the machine in operation and analyzing it by all analytical and measurement means available. Each new program that is built is an experiment. It poses a question to nature, and its behavior offers clues to an answer." (Allen Newell & Herbert A Simon, "Computer Science as Empirical Inquiry: Symbols and Search", 1975)
"In this quest for simplification, mathematics stands to computer science as diamond mining to coal mining. The former is a search for gems. [...]The latter is permanently involved with bulldozing large masses of ore - extremely useful bulk material." (Jacob T Schwartz, "Discrete Thoughts: Essays on Mathematics, Science, and Philosophy, Computer Science", 1986)
"The potential of computer science, if fully explored and developed, will take us to a higher plane of knowledge about the world. Computer science will assist us in gaining a greater understanding of intellectual processes. It will enhance our knowledge of the learning process, the thinking process, and the reasoning process. Computer science will provide models and conceptual tools for the cognitive sciences. Just as the physical sciences have dominated humanity's intellectual endeavors during this century as researchers explored the nature of matter and the beginning of the universe, today we are beginning the exploration of the intellectual universe of ideas, knowledge structures, and language." (John E Hopcroft, [ACM Turing Award Lecture] 1987)
"Computer science only indicates the retrospective omnipotence of our technologies. In other words, an infinite capacity to process data (but only data - i.e. the already given) and in no sense a new vision. With that science, we are entering an era of exhaustivity, which is also an era of exhaustion." (Jean Baudrillard, "Cool memories", 1990)
"There is an art, craft, and science to programming that extends far beyond the program. The act of programming marries the discrete world of computers with the fluid world of human affairs. Programmers mediate between the negotiated and uncertain truths of business and the crisp, uncompromising domain of bits and bytes and higher constructed types." (Kevlin Henney, "97 Things Every Programmer Should Know", 2010)
"Computer science is concerned with the theories and methods
that underlie computers and software systems, whereas software engineering is
concerned with the practical problems of producing software. Some knowledge of
computer science is essential for software engineers in the same way that some
knowledge of physics is essential for electrical engineers. Computer science
theory, however, is often most applicable to relatively small programs. Elegant
theories of computer science cannot always be applied to large, complex
problems that require a software solution." (Ian Sommerville, "Software Engineering" 9th Ed., 2011)
"Perhaps an underlying cause [of doubt as to the future of information science] is in some cases [...] the apprehension that information science may become submerged in the larger field of computer science." (Brian C Vickery)
