Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!motcsd!dms!albaugh
From: albaugh@dms.UUCP (Mike Albaugh)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Theory vs. Practice in CS Education
Message-ID: <880@dms.UUCP>
Date: 13 Nov 89 19:23:23 GMT
References: <1989Nov12.044511.992@world.std.com>
Organization: Atari Games Inc., Milpitas, CA
Lines: 29

From article <1989Nov12.044511.992@world.std.com>, by madd@world.std.com (jim frost):
> dstalder@TAFS.MITRE.ORG ("Stalder D S") writes:
>>I think that education should be 75% theory and 25% practical knowledge.  
>>Someone can get an associates and work for two years and have more 
>>practical knowledge than a BS does.  You can get practical knowledge at 
>>work.
> 
> So what you're telling all those employers is that you want them to
> pay people for a year or so while they learn how to write good code?
> I don't think that'll go over so well.

	As a sometimes "employer", I'd far rather pay someone for
a year to learn how to write good code, than hassle for a year with
someone who _thinks_ he already can, and won't learn. I have more problems
with people who seemingly never learned about things as simple as
linked lists (or arithmetic overflow) than I ever had with someone
simpy being not quite up to speed on the latest "hot" language.

	To add a few more logs to this fire, I also find a fair number
of uses for the stuff I learned in those "useless" O.S. courses, and
having written a "toy" compiler is a godsend when attempting to unravel
the obscure error messages from other "state of the art" compilers.

					Mike

| Mike Albaugh (albaugh@dms.UUCP || {...decwrl!pyramid!}weitek!dms!albaugh)
| Atari Games Corp (Arcade Games, no relation to the makers of the ST)
| 675 Sycamore Dr. Milpitas, CA 95035		voice: (408)434-1709
| The opinions expressed are my own (Boy, are they ever)