Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!decwrl!ucbvax!husc6!endor!siegel From: siegel@endor.harvard.edu (Rich Siegel) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: The programming CULT Message-ID: <3726@husc6.harvard.edu> Date: 3 Aug 90 16:04:23 GMT References: <90206.152308GROSSPA@QUCDN.BITNET> Sender: news@husc6.harvard.edu Reply-To: siegel@endor.UUCP (Rich Siegel) Organization: Symantec Language Products Group Lines: 38 In article Garance_Drosehn@mts.rpi.edu (Garance Drosehn) writes: >In article <90206.152308GROSSPA@QUCDN.BITNET> > GROSSPA@QUCDN.QueensU.CA (SPLAT) writes: >> Question 1 - Why is it that most of the really good mac programmers I >> meet are rarely CS grads. Lots of physics guys, some math, some arts etc. >> (I have however met some REAL hotshot CS grad programmers in Cupertino) My pet peeve about most CS curricula is that they train people to be computer scientists, not professional software engineers; I am yet to see a course of study which provides emphasis on the design and implementation of production code. I'm a physics major who was interested in programming, so I did software to help (typically) computer-ignorant scientists and engineers work most effectively with their data-gathering equipment. >I can't speak for all CS-type people, but in my case the reason I avoided >the Mac initially was a simple matter of size and power. It wasn't until >the Mac got to the Mac Plus size that I could get myself interested in it, I started writing Mac code using Macintosh Pascal on a 512K machine with two 400K floppy drives. Little did I know that I'd grow up to do a version of Macintosh Pascal, and use a Mac II to do it... R. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rich Siegel Staff Software Developer Symantec Corporation, Language Products Group Internet: siegel@endor.harvard.edu UUCP: ..harvard!endor!siegel "Who could sleep when there's a hunk with no clothes on wandering around at five in the morning, knocking over furniture?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~