Coding is Not Computer Science

We have translated "computer science" by "informatique", that one can see as a portemanteau word made with "information" and "automatique" (although that's not its actual etymology). Informatique is the science of processing in a automatic manner information. The word can be used both as a noun and as an adjective.

However for most people this still implies the use of a computer. For industrial processes for instance we have the "automatique" - the science of controlling automatons.

Both l'automatique (automation) and l'informatique are part of la cybernetique (cybernetics)

One may note that in automation, you can sometimes both use "abstract" mathematics while using low level languages (think assembler, although C is more and more common).

What the featured article wants to say, I guess, is that coding is related to the implementation while "computer science" is related to algorithms and their composition.

In theory they are indeed disconnected, although in some cases they are not, but in practice it is not rare that the same person designs a solution around connected algorithms, and implements the whole thing.

Here again we use different words from English. A person that analyses problems and codes a solution was historically called "analyste-programmeur", but nowadays it has been replaced by "développeur" (cause it's shorter) which is, according to Wikipedia the equivalent of programmer, which is synonym of... "coder".

I think the terminology here is a whole mess - and I suspect it is caused by the common practice of fancy or grotesquely ornate job titles. For instance mine is (translated) "development engineer". Although I do have an engineering degree, my actual job on a daily basis is really the of an "analyst-programmer", and so is the job of most of my coworkers even when their job title is "web developer".

/r/programming Thread Parent Link - ryxcommar.com