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From: riks@athena.UUCP (Rik Smoody)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Teaching UNIX
Message-ID: <88@athena.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Nov-84 14:15:14 EST
Article-I.D.: athena.88
Posted: Mon Nov  5 14:15:14 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Nov-84 04:07:49 EST
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 29

We are in (dubiously) good company in teaching UNIX to undergrads:
I refer to the teaching of law.
Folks who study law here in Oregon have a much easier time with
Oregon's bar exam than those who study out of state.
It's not that general principles are different, but that some FACTS
are important too.
A master carpenter/contractor knows much more than the
physics of wood and iron.  Go to your local steel mill and ask for
pieces of iron 3.54 inches long and 7/64 inch diameter.
They will work for joining pieces of wood which are each 1.77
inches thick (which you carefully calculated as the thickness
needed to support your load)
I sure would not hire you to build for me.  I want a carpenter who
buys 2x4's and 16d sinkers (vinyl coated nails).
Economics is an important part of most jobs.
Compare also the study of medicine: the system is set up such that
people are encouraged (forced, usually) to get their internship
training in a different place from their med school.  But, luckily,
bodies work and fail similarly all over the country.
And a large part of medical training is pragmatics.  

There is plenty of room for specialists, but I'd still think twice about
a physician who's never delivered a baby nor sutured a cut.  And right
now, with the computer industry as it is, I'd "wonder" about an
undergraduate program which did not include any study of UNIX or closely
related system.  I'd discount the program until they convinced me that
they really did have a good replacement.

Rik Smoody