On Wed, 16 Jan 2002 08:07:54 +0800 (PHT), Pablo Manalastas wrote: > On Tue, 15 Jan 2002, Sacha Chua wrote: > > > However, we don't really teach good programming and debugging practices > > in school. <ruefully> Even the teachers tend to use printfs to 'debug' > > their code. I'd like to change that.. should be fun, you think?
> Ideally, your program should already be error free and thoroughly > debugged, even before you sit down to type the code. We did > "paper debugging" in the late 1960s, and the thing worked for us, > and I do not see why it should not work for you today. <snip> > I believe that paper debugging is a good programming practice. It takes > you away from the monitor and its dangerous radiation. It gives you time > to think out your program, which you should have done in the first place! I think we were the last batch of UPLB CS students who had hands-on experience with a mainframe, and we tended to "cheat" by using Turbo C to check our program's correctness before uploading it and running it on the 4341... That being said, we were still required to go through flowcharts, functional specifications, and program analysis before we went to Turbo Pascal or C. (mostly due to the fact that we had no electricity for most of the semester. :-). Unfortunately, I think the problem stems from the fact that 80% of all CS students nowadays are taking computer science not because they like programming, but because their parents want them to. Uso kasi. Years ago, only a handful of students would opt for CS - due to the heavy math requirements. Now, with pressure from DOST and CHED to produce more CS graduates, we've been forced to reduce the math requirement somewhat (although we still have an average of 60% mortality by the the time they graduate). So, in short, most BSCS students today aren't into it for the coding, or the math - they're in in for the money. So they tend to cut corners, go for the path of least resistance - which means VB and Java. I have few students who actually like coding - most of 'em would rather download existing code from the 'net. Again, VB and Java. :-) - Elfredy Cadapan - Institute of Computer Science, Univ. of the Philippines at Los Banos _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
