zlacker

>>janvdb+(OP)
> My aunt and cousin thought of computer technology as a series of increasingly elaborate sand castles supplanting one another after each high tide clears the beach.

They are basically right though.

The counterexample of some Unix utilities means nothing. You're not getting a CS degree in order to develop the next version of cat, are you?

We have some things with a long history and they are easy to identify. It is just hindsight being 20/20.

For every one of those things, there are countless that can't be seen or felt. They aren't here; they got washed away.

Who uses the Michigan Terminal System?

Or a web framework from ten years ago?

>>kazina+ev
I think we have to distinguish computer science from engineering here. Computer science is a branch of mathematics, where theories are developed and results are obtained that in principle remain valid for ever. Think of theories of computation and complexity theory, but also logic, probability and so on.

Indeed, the observation that some Unix utilities have their roots in the seventies misses the point in this regard. I'd say this is a testament to the success of the unix approach or whatever you want to call it. It's not really about computer science.