Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!ucselx!crash!jeff
From: jeff@crash.cts.com (Jeff Makey)
Newsgroups: comp.org.acm
Subject: Re: HS Contests....
Message-ID: <9079@crash.cts.com>
Date: 6 May 91 02:25:16 GMT
References: <91122.084729TAINT021@ysub.ysu.edu> <9105021917.AA27597@enuxha.eas.asu.edu>
Organization: Future Procrastinators of America
Lines: 19

In article <9105021917.AA27597@enuxha.eas.asu.edu> hurwitz@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (Roger A. Hurwitz) writes:
>I (and others) believe that these contests, while encouraging an interest
>in computer science, send the wrong message to future practitioners.
>That is, current contests reward cleverness and speed at the expense
>of quality and discipline.

If the programs are judged by the correctness of their output, I don't
see how quality and discipline are being compromised.  True, there is
zero emphasis on programming style and maintainability, but for small
problems of the type that are to be solved in these contests the best
thing is just to get the %#@*! program written and be done with it.
That's the way the real world works.

                            :: Jeff Makey
                               ACM member since 1980

Department of Tautological Pleonasms and Superfluous Redundancies Department
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