My own university never chose a language. They preferred to leave that choice up to the students for labs. They have assistants at the labs who could help you. If you chose a language that no one could help you with, then you were on your own. I tried C++ for a couple of classes including an algorithms class and there was no one who could help if I ran into trouble. Pascal and Modula were the first languages they taught. Later there were a couple classes that had C, but they still want to be an academic endeavor, not a technical school.
Moving between languages is made easy when you understand the fundamentals. If all you know is a language, then you will have a hard time moving to another since you don't know computer science. On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 1:30 PM, clay <[email protected]> wrote: > The Posse focuses way too much on programming languages and tools and > skips over domain expertise and the importance of academics for > specific software domains. > > The Posse criticized universities for language choice: being slow to > adopt Java and now being slow to adopt something simpler for web > development. The local university and community colleges where I live > absolutely offer "continuing education" type classes with this applied > approach. They have Python or Rails web development classes, database > classes, network admin classes, and computer graphics and video game > development classes. These classes absolutely have more programming > language and dev tool variety of the type you discuss. > > However, from an academia perspective, the premier undergraduate > curriculums try to avoid the applied trade skills and teach more > conceptual subjects. The CS curriculum at my local university, has at > most, one class about "programming". All the other classes teach some > other concept, such as algorithms or data structures or data mining or > machine learning. Most of these classes involve programming, but > merely as an aid to teach a concept. Secondly, the dominant > programming languages used in university courses aren't the C/Java/ > Python/Ruby class of languages used for general purpose production > software, but the Matlab/R type languages which are intended for > engineering/math/statistical prototype work. > > There are certain skill sets that universities excel at teaching > students: math, statistics, physics, biology, signal processing, etc. > The typical mundane software job doesn't need any of that at all, > which is often a rude shock to graduating students. But on the flip > side, sometimes those skills are absolutely necessary for particular > software domains and they are very hard to learn well or teach outside > the university system. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "The Java Posse" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. > > -- Robert Casto www.robertcasto.com www.sellerstoolbox.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
