From: Justin Collins <collinsj@...>
Date: 2006-05-16T05:54:41+09:00
Subject: Re: begining programmer questions

Francis Cianfrocca wrote:
> Well, I have a somewhat different theory. Because remember five to ten
> years ago, when all the young people were coming out having learned
> Scheme and nothing else, so they were useless? I think someone told
> the professors they need to train people for the real world, but they
> responded by picking Java as the default choice. Seems like it would
> be nice to find a happy medium between solid training in CS
> fundamentals and practical knowledge. The Java training they're
> getting now seems to be little more than recipes.
>
This is exactly correct. A lot of CS programs (my own included) are 
struggling with a balance between marketable skills (ugh) and a solid 
theoretical base. My school is currently considering switching from C++ 
to Java for intro CS classes. I was lucky enough to have classes with 
both C++ and Java, as well as a programming languages class that used 
Scheme. Most of the CS students younger than myself will be lucky if 
they are exposed to Python.

I think the main problem is that some students just want to learn to be 
software engineers, others want to be computer scientists. The best 
proposal I've heard so far is to split the CS program into the two, one 
track for the practical side and the other for theoretical. Of course, 
there would be quite a bit of overlap.

In my opinion, it should be straight computer science, drop the software 
engineering or make it a different major :) Too bad the department is 
heading in the direct opposite direction.

-Justin