Re: lectures about "programming methodology"
On 5/6/2013 5:07 AM, Arved Sandstrom wrote:
On 05/05/2013 08:48 PM, Arne Vajh?j wrote:
[ SNIP ]
Third, some say that the actual education (at bachelor and
masters level - PhD level may be different) is not that much
better at the famous universities than at lesser know
universities and that the benefits of joining is more
about the prestige and the connections one get. As I have never
seen the inside of an American university, then I can not
say if it is true or not.
That's pretty much true almost anywhere. It obviously depends on the
specific discipline, whether the eventual focus is research as a career
or practical application, and so forth.
But for IT specifically, for preparing students for real work, I've seen
two-year vocational/business schools or community colleges often do a
better job of providing some programming language training and a dollop
of useful software engineering than 4-year CS programs at name
universities.
I don't know why anyone would even expect a programming language course,
online or otherwise, offered by any school and typically taught by a
faculty member or TA with less time in real-world programming experience
than hundreds of thousands of professional programmers have, to either
be particularly noteworthy or to be better than the dozens of good or
excellent tutorials that have been on the Web for years.
They should not.
Programming at a university should not be seen as a primary
goal but as an illustration for the theory being taught.
I think it's pointless to pay $$$ to learn programming languages. What
*is* a good idea to pay money for is some courses in software
engineering, but CS programs don't often offer quality courses in that.
Failing that option, again, no shortage of quality books on the
subject...and simply OJT.
Theory need to be backed by some practical usage for students to
get the point.
Java/C#/C++ is OK for that in my opinion. OCAML/Haskell/Eiffel may
be more "in" in CS circles, but ...
I am sure that it varies, but some universities do try to teach about
software engineering.
Maybe not as good as you may want, but it is a very difficult topic.
And to make a quote from a movie: "Some lessons can't be taught. They
must be lived to be understood.". I don't think even the best possible
course can replace experience for something like that.
If I were aspiring to a career in IT, which does benefit for HR reasons
if nothing else from a bachelor's degree minimum, I'd take a quality
degree in almost anything except CS.
I think CS is OK.
The success of non-CS people with degrees in other natural sciences
and engineering disciplines do show that the way of thinking is a very
big part of what is gained.
Arne