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From: reggie@dinsdale.nm.paradyne.com (George W. Leach)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Theory vs. Practice in CS Education
Message-ID: <6777@pdn.paradyne.com>
Date: 28 Nov 89 14:36:52 GMT
References: <16195@duke.cs.duke.edu> <1989Nov27.230724.12252@aqdata.uucp>
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Reply-To: reggie@dinsdale.paradyne.com (George W. Leach)
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In article <1989Nov27.230724.12252@aqdata.uucp> sullivan@aqdata.uucp (Michael T. Sullivan) writes:

>Don't forget that CS courses don't teach programming, they teach (start
>the choir) "SCIENCE" (the choir finishes).  I seem to recall that of
>my classes at UC Santa Barbara, the only class with the word "programming"
>in it was "Programming Languages", an overview of several different languages.

    While programming may not be the main focus of these courses, it certainly
is the vehicle for conducting laboratory experiments for many.  A course in
simulation is not very useful without hands on practice using a suitable
simulation language.  Algorithms may be studied independ of programming, but
a lab program will aid in understanding them (or an animation).

>Even the introductory courses were "Introduction to Computer Science".

    Yes, but at least when I was an undergrad *and* when I taught this
course, half of the material (al least) was Pascal Programming.  These
are the courses where the students must learn programming skills and
they must be reinforced throughout the curriculum.  A certain quality
of programming should be expected in all lab assignments no matter what
the course.  This requires the entire faculty to enforce such policy.

>If schools ever got around to teaching programming they might just do a
>swell job.
 

    WellI certainly was taught programming and taught well.  BTW: I learned
to hack in BASIC in high school.  I learned how to program well in introductory
courses and was never allowed to deviate in advanced courses where programming
was secondary.



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