[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote on 11/08/2007 05:19:59 PM:
> "Chris Calloway" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
>
> > teach languages. Teaching languages is frowned upon in some computer
> > science departments under the logic that if you belong in a computer
> > science class, you'd better show up for class already knowing
> > something
> > as easy to grasp as an implementation language.
>
> I don't like CS courses to focus on a language either, but neither do
> I think
> we should expect students to already know one. But learning a computer
> language should be a trivial exercise once you understand the CS
> concepts
> of algorithms and data and I/O etc.
>
> One of the worst things I find as an employer is the number of CS
> grads I get to interview who insist they only know one language. I
> wonder
> what they learned at college. That's like an electronics engineer
> saying
> he only knows how to solder, or a civil engineer who only knows how
> to lay bricks! A CS course should concentrate on principles and
> theory and learning languages should be a practical detail that the
> student does almost by osmosis.
>
> And this is, of course, why my tutorial teaches three languages
> not just python ;-)
>
> --
> Alan Gauld
> Author of the Learn to Program web site
> http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld
One of the worse things I found as a recent job hunter, was the number of
employers who are not willing to accept that after completing a CS program
that focuses on the science of CS, learning the language they are using is
a trivial exercise. On the plus side it helps identify the companies I
didn't want to work for.
Chris Henk
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