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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 1696ae,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid1696ae,public X-Google-Thread: fc89c,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gidfc89c,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,baaf5f793d03d420 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,6154de2e240de72a X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: djohnson@tartarus.ucsd.edu (Darin Johnson) Subject: Re: Should I learn C or Pascal? Date: 1996/07/23 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 170446354 sender: djohnson@tartarus.ucsd.edu references: organization: UCSD Computer Science and Engineering Department newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.dos.programmer,comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-07-23T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: > A sizeable portion of the class, > however, whined because they talked to "big, smart people in the real > world" who told them they were wasting their time, no one uses Scheme, > it's a stupid language, you can't do XYZ like you can in C or > whatever, man, universities are stupid, this country is fucked up > blablabla. Unfortunately, this group exists regardless of what you teach or how. I've TA'd and proctored a variety of classes (programming and architecture), and you don't get away from them. And it's not just that they want the university to be a trade school either, I had people in '81 (back when you had to know a variety of things and be able to adapt in order to program) and they were complaining about why they should learn Pascal since they already knew BASIC and didn't need this intro to programming class. They didn't do that well in the class however. Had a student complain about why he should learn how compiler work since we already have a good C compiler. And of course, plenty were upset that they had to learn about the eniac or computability or PDA's or what-not. Of course, IMHO, I think the solution would be to take the military route. Don't reason with the students, make them do laps or pushups instead. Call them names and insult their mothers when they claim to be smarter than you. Get rid of all their preconceived notions in boot camp so they can actually learn something later on. (what, do students actually say "only wussies use Pascal in the real world" at West Point?). The old saying goes, "he can write Fortran in any language". Which is just a way of saying that you can present a programmer with any language you want, but if they can't program well you won't get a good program at the end. -- Darin Johnson djohnson@ucsd.edu O- Gravity is a harsh mistress - The Tick