Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!dcl-cs!aber-cs!thor!pcg From: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: The CS "religion" (was Re: It looks like he's at it again!) Message-ID: Date: 24 Jul 90 17:22:33 GMT References: <1990Jul12.012730.4248@Stardent.COM> <64044@sgi.sgi.com> <665@ria.ccs.uwo.ca> Sender: pcg@aber-cs.UUCP Followup-To: comp.misc Organization: Coleg Prifysgol Cymru Lines: 49 In-reply-to: brown@csd.uwo.ca's message of 16 Jul 90 16:23:28 GMT In article <665@ria.ccs.uwo.ca> brown@csd.uwo.ca (Mike Brown) writes: In article , rang@cs.wisc.edu (Anton Rang) writes: |> |> There are definitely days I think all CS majors should be forced to |>take a class where they actually talk with a user and have to write a |>program for the user, and have part of their grade based on how well |>it works, the user interface, etc. Probably impractical, but I think |>it can be done better than it is right now. |> I completely agree and that's why I took CS611 here, a Masters level course in Software Engineering which includes a year-long project for a real user. This happens also at the local University, for all undergraduates, and non research postgraduates. Well, the client is not real-real (it is some lecturer or professor), but the experience is nice, from what I see of them. This year we (3 of us) did an X Windows-based scholarly text processing system for an English professor (SGML, TeX, etc). I worked for 3 years before coming back for my Masters, but being the architect of a project of this size (15,000 lines) and working with the client to come up with the best solution to his problem was quite a learning experience. Here we stumble upon an interesting problem: you and your friends put 3 man years into an interesting user grade application of 15,000 lines, which on the face of it should be of interest to a vast public. Who owns it now? (hint: some universities insist they own exclusively any student work, and students are not allowed to publish or redistribute their work without permission, which is routinely refused until it is proven that such cannot be commercially exploited by the university). Who *should* own it? Well, if your University has done what IMNHO is the right thing, why don't you tell us where to fetch it. I have a few people here that would like to try it :-). -- Piercarlo "Peter" Grandi | ARPA: pcg%cs.aber.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth | UUCP: ...!mcsun!ukc!aber-cs!pcg Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk