> Braben was studying natural sciences, Bell was on the maths course. Neither went anywhere near the computer science department, which they had arrogantly but accurately decided offered them nothing useful.
They're talking about Cambridge in 1982. Was the computer science dept. really useless at that time? I doubt it. Obviously, I respect their DIY ethos and their genius for invention but they might have picked up some ideas for further invention if they had done some CS courses.
Certainly ten years later it was too abstract. Lots about compiler theory. Computer science is sometimes useful for software engineering, but only occasionally.
Before then computer science was the only course really offered. Around that time some universities seemed to start offering other related courses such as "Information Technology" (I remember they had slightly lower entry requirements as "computer science" was a relatively hard course to get onto in a decent University in the UK as it was popular.)
Avoiding going to Cambridge for that reason. The Poly's offered far better Computer Science courses at that time and we got an upgrade to a university degree anyway.
They're talking about Cambridge in 1982. Was the computer science dept. really useless at that time? I doubt it. Obviously, I respect their DIY ethos and their genius for invention but they might have picked up some ideas for further invention if they had done some CS courses.