Do We Need to Study Theory of TOC!?

So it’s here – the day most of the class has been hoping never came – the day to put the Theory of Computation into practice.


As one of our teachers is gracious enough to quote in class every now and then, "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." Which makes it all the more confusing – does it imply that even if I study theory, I won’t be able to implement it in practice as both are different in practice!?

Another quote to substantiate this by Falk Bruegmann, “In theory, that's science. But in reality, science is sometimes practiced differently.”

I think our teacher would agree with Robert Grossblatt's variation, “Theory and reality are only theoretically related.” Which implies we need to study theory to pass the exam.

But in the words of Trygve Reenskaug from the University of Oslo, "In theory, practice is simple." So cheers buddies, the exam paper would be easy tomorrow… But then again, Alexandre Boily says, "But, is it simple to practice theory?" No need to ask us..

Loads of confusion but I guess we can follow Jan van de Snepscheut, a Dutch Mathematician, who says, "It may come out all right in practice, but it'll never work in theory!" This quote sounds highly relevant in our context – things never work out in theory for us (at least for me), but it should work out in practice when we sit in the exam hall tomorrow. So what’s the need to study theory, wasting hours of precious time?

And last but not the least, I think our quote (at least mine) would go something like this, “All I care about is passing this exam. I've lost the ability to discern theory from practice.”