Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!reed!kamath From: kamath@reed.UUCP (Sean Kamath) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: School... Message-ID: <8652@reed.UUCP> Date: 6 Apr 88 00:06:47 GMT References: <8803281912.aa01446@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA> Reply-To: kamath@reed.UUCP (Sean Kamath) Organization: Reed College, Portland OR Lines: 64 In article <8803281912.aa01446@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA> MCL9337@TAMVENUS.BITNET writes: > [a discussion on the usefullness of school] > > The best you get is a wimpy BASIC course or something. I had to >take a BASIC course my Senior year in high school. It was a big laugh! I had >taught myself BASIC two years before that! I learned ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from >that class. I was in a similar position, especially in the fact that our teacher had less experience than I with computers. Even so, I was in the minority, and I feel that people really ought to be allowed to trundle through these little classes. I feel that everyone who is going to *use* a computer have a *little* bit of programming "practice". If for nothing else, to appreciate the work involved in creating something like Paintworks Plus. . . But -- >School (not including college) can not come close to teaching you anything >about the more complicated aspects of computing! Not even in college, for the most part. For a short time, I was going around yapping about how silly it was to be a CS major. I also had my reasons, but. . . Well. Let me say, I've had three classes in computing (languages. None is "use".), one when I was in 8th grade, one in 10th, and the last in 12th. I am now a "senior" in college, and have done quite well all by myself, in that I can get a good job programming in C (the classes I took were in BASIC and assembler). So what is school for? Since I am a "physics" major and not a "CompSci" major, I cannot take upper division CS classes (never mind that reed only has two classes *total* in CS). And the only low level CS class (at PSU) that I have interrest in (language-wise) is intro C! Now, I just finished working for a guy, programming in C for about 6 months! he was a computer consultant for a rater large company, and he knew what he was doing. Don't you think he would have fired me if I needed to take an intro C class? What's the point, sean. Well, the point is, school is what you make of it. I know CS majors (who've graduated) who don't know C, and are currently working for Profs doing Dbase conversions (really!) and such. My "hobby" is the Apple ][. It has helped me a great deal in learning about computers. So I know a lot from a "hackers" point of view (though not the typical 13 year-old-hacker-stuff most people think about. I wrote programs, I didn't spend all night cracking games. Though occasionally I did similar stuff, as it really helped me learn tricky Assem stuff), but not ins a structured manner. For this, I sometimes get caught. I want to take a date structures class, but fear I will get bored as the Prof talks about how to use the structures. I know how, just not why. And if you ask me why I am a "physic" major instead of a CS major, I will tell you what I tell everyone. Computers are tools, not and end unto themselves. And I want them to help me build things. Preferable things that fly. Computing is a hobby. It just happens to be a hobby that pays well. Sean Kamath PS I feel sorry for some CS majors. They keep getting told massive starting saleries for CS majors, yet get out there and realize they don't have enough practicle experience to make that starting salery. Ug. Sorry it was so long. -- UUCP: {decvax allegra ucbcad ucbvax hplabs ihnp4}!tektronix!reed!kamath CSNET: reed!kamath@Tektronix.CSNET || BITNET: reed!kamath@PSUVAX1.BITNET ARPA: reed!kamath@psuvax1.arpa US Snail: 3934 SE Boise, Portland, OR 97202 (I hate 4 line .sigs!)