From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: ** X-Spam-Status: No, score=2.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_20,INVALID_MSGID, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 109fba,baaf5f793d03d420 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: fc89c,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gidfc89c,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,6154de2e240de72a X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public From: patrick@broadvision.com (Patrick Horgan) Subject: Re: What's the best language to start with? [was: Re: Should I learn C or Pascal?] Date: 1996/08/03 Message-ID: <4u0adc$qcp@ns.broadvision.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 171924753 references: <31FDFB6C.2781E494@att.com> organization: The quite unorganized Patrick reply-to: patrick@broadvision.com newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-08-03T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: I interviewed someone with a masters in CS and years of experience recently that couldn't correctly code a strcmp() function. He's been working with C++, yet though a constructor returned something. Things like this are not the exception but the rule in the interviews I do...it's sad. How do people stay in the industry when they don't even know the basic use of their tools? In article <31FDFB6C.2781E494@att.com>, Paul Campbell writes: > >>>>>> > I was shocked at the results. I had people with Masters and > Doctorates who were completely incapable of creating new solutions > that they had never seen before. I had people, with *degrees* now, > tell me "convert argument to binary" as one of the steps on a > logical operation problem! The latter are people who are ground > in the "abstraction" of an integer, but are completely clueless > that the computer works in binary. How can a student get a > full-blown degree, and not understand a computer works in binary? > It's like graduating someone with a writing degree who is > illiterate. > <<<<<<< > > We have had CS students on placement here after 2 years of study who > didn't even understand hexedecimal !. > > Paul C. > UK. -- Patrick J. Horgan patrick@broadvision.com Have horse will ride. Opinions mine, not my employer's except by most bizarre coincidence.