Is programming science?

mrbig
2019-10-02T15:07:59Z

There's no doubt computer science is indeed a science, but what about programming itself? Does it fulfill the basic requirements that make something a science? I'm not an academic, just trying to start a conversation.

In many ways, programming is like Math: a means to an end. And Math is a science. Like math, programming has several fields with vastly different ideas of what constitutes programming. Because it is applied logic, programming is also provable and disprovable. There are many disputing hypothesis and, even though absolute truth is a distant dream, it is certain that some sentences are truer than others. Again, like Math, Programming has many practical applications, such as finances and engineering.

Some people consider Math a propaedeutics: not a science in itself, but a discipline that provides fundamentals to actual sciences such as chemistry and physics. The same reasoning could be applied to programming, as nothing more than a tool for computer science. I personally think there's something unique about programming and it's problem-solving methods that can be considered a field of its own.

What you guys and girls think?

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