[ale] Off topic

[Williams, Jim]

Hmmm, I am looking at the courses that I have taken at Southern
Tech,....Assembler...Computer Architecture...Data Structures in
C++...Applications programming in UNIX/Windows..... to name just a few (I am
a senior) if your not getting what you need at the big tech maybe you need
the small tech : ).  I know the Engineering departments (at SPSU) are
applied engineering but I feel we are getting a good mix of Applied and
theoretical science in this CS dept. We definitely do not spend as much time
with Calculus and such but I was not looking for a Math minor either.  Of
course we must also remember that it is human nature to think things are
never as good as they used to be( I was in the Navy...you should here those
old guys bitch).  Just because one guy from one school can not tell you the
difference between a thread or a string does not mean that the entire CS
curriculum is producing bone heads.  I am glad to have a school where I can
gain employable skills quickly(I enjoy eating).  I figure I will try to get
deep into the theory if I am interested in grad school or research on my
own.

Jim Williams
Business Systems Analyst
Accu-Tech Corporation
jwilliam at accu-tech.com


-----Original Message-----
 From: Geoff Harrison [mailto:mandrake at mandrake.net]
Sent: Friday, July 17, 1998 1:05 PM
To: Vernard Martin; Matt Shade
Cc: ale at cc.gatech.edu
Subject: Re: [ale] Off topic


On Fri, Jul 17, 1998 at 12:49:54PM -0400, Vernard Martin wrote:
> > Assembler and C and algorithms as fundamental building blocks? Have they
> > been replaced with Windows 101 and Word Fundamentals? This is scary to
> > me.
> 
> Even here at Ga Tech (which has steadily been rising up the charts towards

> being a top ten university in CS), we are seeing this trend. It seems to
be the
> fault of the faculty that are designing the curriculum. The low level
assembly
> and hardware courses are no longer taught in the CS curriculum. The
Computer
> ENgineering department which is part of the Electricla Engineering dept is
> responsible for that. We also no longer offer hands-on networking labs. 

That's such a shame, too.  I talked to someone who is a currently enrolled
freshman at tech about the new intro classes.  They're teaching HTML
as a part of the CS curriculum?  But then again a lot of my friends
who are also recent grads come out not being able to thing in anything
but OOP models.  Limiting yourself to one mode of thinking is always too
inhibitive.  Which is why I always want to prove people wrong when they
say there's only one way to do something.

Oh, and incidentally, I have begun work on my shell replacement, MAW.
look for some docs to pop up this weekend after enl 0.14 comes out
on saturday morning.

-- 
Geoff Harrison (http://mandrake.net)
Senior Systems Engineer
Intellimedia Commerce (http://www.intellimedia.com)
Co-Author, Enlightenment Window Manager (http://www.enlightenment.org)
phone: (404)262-0001x102