> As someone completing their final semester of a BSc Comp. Sci. I have to
> agree with Angus. Uni aims to teach you general techniques and concepts as
> opposed to specific languages.
This is the point at which I say, "Hear, hear!" And I haven't even completed
Uni! (and do I feel the duffer for it...)
> They were
> still teaching you the general concepts, ADT's, recursion etc etc (you all
> know the stuff so I won't rattle it all off).
[ 8< snip ]
> But they were just that.. tools. The concepts I've learnt turn learning a
> new language into a simple case of flicking through the appropriate
> O'reily's to learn the syntax and within a few days you are writing code
> fairly proficiently
Here's what bugs me... Web developers running around saying they can code. I
can't. I know a fair bit, I've written a hell of a lot of it, and maybe I've
seen a glimpse of "getting it". It worries me greatly when I see *scripts*
(this is interpreted, baby!) with hundreds of lines of switch statements,
when a simplistic table method would have done it in maybe 5% of that (with
some helper code).
But me? I still know poopies compared to seriously skilled coders, and I
still make *absolutely* idiotic oversights. Cutting your teeth as a web
developer does that to you.
> I'm not saying university is the only way to "get it" but it certainly
> provides a structured way of learning how to "get it" and it has worked
for
> me. Others prefer different approaches to learning the same things I'm
> sure. I certainly believe that if the person has the potential to "get it"
> they just have to find the right method for them.
A sobering thought... A couple of weeks ago I was pointed towards a Linux
Journal article about qualifications of kernel coders (I don't have the
link, but it's in their archives). It was done as research after a PHB
called them something along the lines of 3rd year college long-hairs.
Ultimately, it proved the PHB wrong, as most of the respondents (and there
were quite a few) were graduates or beyond (way beyond). There were very few
non-graduates.
Now, I'm not saying I want to be a kernel developer (well, *everyone* wants
to be a kernel developer "when they grow up" so it doesn't count)... But it
is an indication of where education will get you.
*sigh* - Jeff
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-- moses hasn't gnu parted the hard drives at work (yet)
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