[IP] Re: U.S. colleges retool programming classes - Yahoo! News

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: John Adams <jadams01@sprynet.com>
Date: June 3, 2007 12:11:49 PM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: Andrew Hunt <andy@pragprog.com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: U.S. colleges retool programming classes -  
Yahoo! News

> From: Andrew Hunt <andy@pragprog.com>

> We do not need more "computer scientists."  We need some,  
> certainly, but not a lot.  Some folks to teach, some folks for  
> compiler design, and we're done.  Most of what you learn in a  
> typical CS curriculum is not actually useful in the day-to-day  
> world of commercial programming, hence the OP's observation that  
> "what they learned in college was crap."  No, it's not crap--- it's  
> just not applicable most of the time.
>
> What we need are software engineers.  Some colleges have started  
> offering Software Engineering degrees which cover at least the  
> basics of getting functioning software out the door successfully.   
> Many of these programs are still lacking, but it's a start.

I wonder--do you feel the same way about physicists versus mechanical/ 
electrical/civil engineers? Chemists versus chemical engineers?

I'm not sure what disturbs me more (and I'm speaking as someone  
wishes he'd had a graduate program in software engineering available  
to him): The idea that computing science is a solved field--"Some  
folks to teach, some folks for compiler design, and we're done"--or  
the idea that what "we" (we who?) need is more education tailored to  
the narrow interests of employers. I don't think it's the job of  
universities to turn themselves into vo-tech schools (though adding  
two-year degrees with that sort of focus is a fine idea, especially  
if passage between the two tracks is made respectable), and I don't  
think employers have a right to expect entry-level positions to be  
filled by people who sit down and go straight to work.

When I made a transfer inside my first technical employer, it was  
pretty well standard that everyone who came onto our team had a six- 
month breaking in period before being put into the on-call rotation.  
That's a big part of why that team never, ever lost any customer data  
and never, ever suffered any permanent data corruption--only once in  
two years did I see a disk controller puke into the data, and we got  
that fixed by the end of a long, long night. Bypassing that burn-in  
period is a prime example of the sort of short-term false economy  
that's ripping the guts out of my daughter's future.

All the best,

	John A
	http:/www.arkansawyer.com/wordpress/



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