Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!mephisto!mcnc!duke!romeo!crm From: crm@romeo.cs.duke.edu (Charlie Martin) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Theory vs. Practice in CS Education Message-ID: <16195@duke.cs.duke.edu> Date: 27 Nov 89 18:01:48 GMT References: <880@dms.UUCP> <7044@hubcap.clemson.edu> <4251@pegasus.ATT.COM> <4967@ae.sei.cmu.edu> <15947@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <4979@ae.sei.cmu.edu> <16169@duke.cs.duke.edu> <16189@duke.cs.duke.edu> <464.256f4723@devsim.mdcbbs.com> Sender: news@duke.cs.duke.edu Reply-To: crm@romeo.UUCP (Charlie Martin) Organization: Duke University CS Dept.; Durham, NC Lines: 32 In article <464.256f4723@devsim.mdcbbs.com> jmi@devsim.mdcbbs.com ((JM Ivler) MDC - Douglas Aircraft Co. Long Beach, CA.) writes: >In article <16189@duke.cs.duke.edu>, crm@romeo.cs.duke.edu (Charlie Martin) writes: >Cripes, I can go to a high school and get someone to "write code" (both good >and bad). I need more than that! I want a person who knows how to become part >of the team. I need someone who understands that they are *not* supposed to >create esoteric solutions to problems, but maintainable ones. I need someone >who wants to problem solve, not just make "big engineering bucks" in aerospace. You won't catch me disagreeing with you: all of these things are important, and I guess I've gotten old enough to find myself thinking "people just had higher standards in the Good Old Days." But I don't think I know the answer to teaching students to have higher standards, or to take pride and feel fulfillment in working on a useful part of a team effort. If I did, I'd write a book like the ONe Minute Manager, get rich, and spend my time on my hobbies. It seems as if we *might could* teach people to write decent code in their programming courses, however. But my strong impression is that we don't, in general, insist on anything except that it will compile and that it will compute the right answer in the one test case the grader applies. >This should make you smile... One of the best engineers I have ever worked with >had a degree in music. That's the answer, we should be hiring music majors. :-) I once read a bit of industrial psych that claimed that musicians were the people who had the closest match to the personality traits and skills of the really top-rank programmers. I guess it doesn't surprise me at all. Charlie Martin (crm@cs.duke.edu,mcnc!duke!crm) Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com