steel-wool panty liners = Java?

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On Wed, 04 Aug 2004 09:45:24 -0400
David Kramer <david at thekramers.net> wrote:

> - Schools today, even technical ones, teach programming languages, but
> not the arts of software design or development.
> 
> - Anyone who sees all problems as nails that will work with their "One
> True Hammer", as opposed to using the right tool for the right job, is
> either irrationally biased, or insufficiently experienced in the other
> tools that are out there.  Note- Insufficient experience is a lot
> easier to fix than irrational bias.

I agree with this. There are basically 4 types of programs that teach
computer programming:
1. Engineering
2. Computer Science (comes out of the Math department)
3. Business programming (eg. MIS)
4. Technical schools et. al. 

In general, only the engineering programs historically teach the art of
software engineering. I have a Masters in CS at BU, and not 1 minute of
this was I taught software design et. al. I learned software engineering
techniques by working in good software environments and by taking
courses presented by the companies where I worked. Another one if my pet
peeves is Visual languages, such as Visual C++ or Visual Basic. Both of
these languages are excellent for getting a job done, but they are
horrible languages to teach to students. If I were running these
schools, I would require at least 2 courses as a prerequisite:
1. General software design and development.
2. Algorithms and data structures

In any case, as an experienced C/C++/assembler programmer, I do think
that Java is a good language in the context under which it designed. I
also think that COBOL was a good language in its day, and still has some
features that have not been subsumed by other languages. One of the real
advantages of an OO language is that it forces the programmer to do some
thinking. In C and C++, you can sit down and write some procedural code
without thinking design, but a pure OO language tends to make this
approach a bit difficult. So, if I want to hack something quickly, I'll
write it in C (or maybe Perl). And, since I teach C, I try to teach my
students to properly document their code. 

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9
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