David, Your points are well taken, and I certainly agree with the suggestions you have about teaching algorithms, etc.
However, I believe in balance. Personally, I was a mathematics major, and love number theory. But I also learned to multiply, divide, and take square roots. I think computer science majors should also learn about the real world, not just learn theory. Automotive engineers need to spend time with wrenches, and Aerospace engineers need to spend hands-on time with aircraft and rockets. Corporations today need CS graduates who are bright, educated, and well-balanced. This is not an either-or choice. Tom Harper NEON Enterprise Software, Inc IMS Utilities Development Team -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Andrews Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 9:12 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Curiosity On Wed, 2006-06-28 at 17:09 -0500, Tom Harper wrote: > I've seen very few university-level computer science programs that are > effective, either for mainframes or non-mainframes. This conversation shouldn't wander too far OT, but I've never understood why people believe that computer science departments should teach m/f particulars (or for that matter, MS-Windows particulars). If "computer science" deserves the "science" part of its title, then those departments should be teaching algorithms, graph theory, game theory, optimization, numerical analysis, NNs, functional programming, compiler structure, objects -- stuff like that. NOT windowing APIs, not JCL, not Apache modules, not Visual Anything. The platform used by the students should be treated as incidental. I'll hire a kid with a fresh CS degree any day, whether he's got MVS experience or not. There's some COBOL coder-beavers around here with years of MVS behind them, but have no idea what O(n) means, and they produce some truly wretched code. Really, you want graduates with MVS skills? Talk to vocational schools (or to Steve) -- THEY're in the business of teaching platforms. Computer science departments should stick to computer science. Here's MIT's EECS course catalog. Notice you don't see either MVS -or- Windows mentioned in it. http://student.mit.edu/catalog/m6a.html -- David Andrews A. Duda and Sons, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
