Xref: utzoo comp.edu:2742 comp.software-eng:2594 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu From: billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe, 2847 ) Newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.software-eng Subject: Re: CS education Message-ID: <7296@hubcap.clemson.edu> Date: 4 Dec 89 12:28:25 GMT References: <16315@duke.cs.duke.edu> Sender: news@hubcap.clemson.edu Reply-To: billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu Lines: 47 From crm@romeo.cs.duke.edu (Charlie Martin): > In other words, you objected so much to what you thought was going to be > in the operating systems courses that you've avoided taking any of them, > and now feel that qualifies you to determine that it is unnecessary? Not exactly. Notice that I had already read several textbooks on the subject before taking any formal coursework. > On the other hand, It seems you've agreed at various points that the > things like concurrent programming, resources, and file system > architectures are okay.... Again, not exactly. I prefer to apply information hiding, thus excluding the details of implementation to the greatest possible extent. Courses like "Operating Systems Implementation" fail to do this. > there has been a debate on for a very long time about whether a > university should "educate" or "train", which is buzzwordery for "Should > a university equip people to reason, understand, and learn new things, > or should a university teach people to become useful code jocks > instantly on exiting school?" Both; the former can be done within the context of the latter. > I do think you're wildly wrong. In any case, the program you describe > is like the Associate's Degree course I took years and years ago; taught > me to be a pretty good COBOL programmer, taught me to write OS/360 JCL. > Other than a couple of years of $14--$20 K jobs (this was some time ago, > not bad money then) it was damned little use. No, it isn't. Software engineering is a long way from COBOL & JCL, which today remain of little use. (Flames to /dev/null...) > Ten years from now, I'll bet a fancy dinner that you'll be glad you > did get what theory you got, A sure bet, since I have repeatedly stated that theory was useful... > and sorry you didn't get an OS course when you could have. Too bad you attached the "theory" part... how about betting a bottle of superb Eiswein just on the OS material? Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com