[ale] Off topic

[Ben Phillips]

On Fri, 17 Jul 1998, Jonathan Hart wrote:

> I remember when I was a fledgeling programmer at GA Tech (all the way back
> in '89) and they were teaching us HOW to program.  I think they started
> with Pascal (does anyone these days even hear of that language?) before
> they moved us to C.  Now, they didn't actually have a class on C, they
> assumed that since they were teaching us the fundamentals of programming
> that we could apply them to any language and learning C was just a matter
> of picking up a new syntax.  Do they do this anymore ?

Yes.  Most people's intro to C is CS 2430, which throws buggy code at
you for the first 2-3 weeks so you can teach yourself C by debugging it.
Then the rest of the class is about coding concurrent, intercommunicating
processes in UNIX.  IOW, it's a pretty brutal crash course, and I've
learned a new language for nearly every class I've taken since then.  They
strongly believe that those who understand will see past the language
level of implementation.  And yes, BTW, there are plenty of classes here
about fundamental hardware and OS architecture.  GT is about as hardcore a
CS program in that area as you're likely to find.  (They learn HTML as one
of the labs in the very first introductory courses.  It's hardly a major
part of the curriculum.)


       * * * * * * *   Ben Phillips <pynk at cc.gatech.edu>   * * * * * *
       *      Not that I think I'm God.  What a cliche.  I don't     *
       *      even want to be God.  I just want to feel like him.    *
       *                       - Lee Moler, "Suicide Note"           *
       * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *