From: Justin Collins <collinsj@...>
Date: 2006-05-16T06:16:42+09:00
Subject: Re: begining programmer questions

Elliot Temple wrote:
>
> On May 15, 2006, at 1:54 PM, Justin Collins wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
> Which half of the split would you say that learning how to implement 
> an AVL tree falls under?
>
> -- Elliot Temple
> http://www.curi.us/blog/
>
At my school, tree structures are introduced in the third CS class, 
'Data Structures'. It's likely that particular class would be required 
for both (in my hypothetical curriculum :)

-Justin