Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!pp!milano!banzai-inst!wex
From: wex@banzai-inst.SW.MCC.COM (Alan Wexelblat)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Cynic's Guide to SE #6: Forthcoming Revolt
Message-ID: <1301@banzai-inst.SW.MCC.COM>
Date: 3 Oct 88 17:54:00 GMT
References: <9@helens.stanford.edu> <5479@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>
Organization: MCC, Austin, TX
Lines: 38

In article <5479@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>, cjl@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Charles Lord) writes:
> ... my alma mater (N.C.State) has more and more professors
> designing course assignments so that they may be done on personal
> computers rather than archaic and/or overburdened department computers.
> Two avenues that have opened this are extensive PD/shareware archive
> and distribution networks on campus and innovative and liberal
> educational discounts or site licenses for commercial software.

The down side of this is professors making assignments _on the assumption_
that the student has her own Mac available.  This is especially problematic
in areas such as mechanical drawing/drafting-type classes where the student
is not only expected to have the computer but is also expected to have
several $300-$500 pieces of software.

Sure, the department has _a_ Mac with the requisite software, but when there
are 20 or more people in the class (times however many classes make
assignments that require Macs) and the department's Mac isn't always up (or
available after 5PM - this is not the CS department we're talking about
here), the situation can get ugly.

Sometimes professors have gone so far as to require that assignments be
turned in on disk so that they can look at the assignments on their own Macs
(which the department bought them, natch).  This screws all the students who
happen to have a different machine or even different software (if the
professor's version is 3.0 and you bought the latest and greatest 3.2 and
3.0 can't read your file formats, you're scrod).

Mind you, I'm not blaming this on Apple - I like the Mac, and I have one at
home (but guess why we were forced to buy it instead of waiting for the Mac
II to drop in price).  But this problem seems to be prevalent at schools
which don't require students to buy computers as part of the entry fee, but
do participate in Apple's University Consortium.

-- 
--Alan Wexelblat      ARPA: WEX@MCC.COM
                      UUCP: {rutgers, uunet, &c}!cs.utexas.edu!milano!wex
Wexelblat's second theorem of humanity:
	"Size is inversely proportional to internal energy."