Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!att-ih!pacbell!ames!ncar!boulder!sunybcs!bingvaxu!leah!itsgw!steinmetz!ge-dab!codas!abcom!rgsmeb
From: rgsmeb@abcom.ATT.COM (Michel Behna)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: What is CS? (Was re First languages)
Message-ID: <568@abcom.ATT.COM>
Date: 1 Apr 88 16:49:35 GMT
References: <3684@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>
Organization: Who? What? Where? ...
Lines: 20

From article <3684@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>, by tlh@cs.purdue.EDU (Thomas L. Hausmann):
> In article <364@abcom.ATT.COM>, rgsmeb@abcom.ATT.COM (Michel Behna) writes:
>> From article <1522@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>, by windley@iris.ucdavis.edu (Phil Windley):
> Do you measure the worth of a computer scientist by how well they program?
> Admittedly, programming is a SKILL largely taken for granted in universities
> and within the system.  But whether a university should take the time to
> train the students to be better programmers is unclear (and I am against it.)

I think that universities should! I've seen too many so-called _computer
scientists_ that have come out of college and that end up as programmers. The
worst part of it is that they do not know how to program. They figure that if
they can create a nifty algorithm it does not matter if nobody else understands
it or if they are unable to maintain six months from now.

No, universities should not train people for high placement jobs BUT they
should not ignore reality. Coop programs are not always available and most
CS programs lack real-world relevant experience. Software-engineering is
under-emphasized(de-emphasized). I have had teachers that tried to teach me
a language and failed miserably because they, themselves, were unable to
program in that language. They could not implement what they taught.