4 ms·
Had the privileged of taking one of his classes while at Syracuse. He referred to most of us in the class as mere "hackers", not worthy of being true "programme
by robocaptain 11y ago
Had the privileged of taking one of his classes while at Syracuse. He referred to most of us in the class as mere "hackers", not worthy of being true "programmers" (yet).
I have a feeling nowadays most people would prefer being called the former over the later!
- useerup 11y agoI had the misfortune of taking one of his classes on compiler construction. He was a thoroughly arrogant person with little ability to recognize that there could be other ways of doing things, and limited teaching skills. He insisted on us using his own book (i.e. not the "dragon" book) on compiler construction. His own material was utterly inferior, but he created a lock-in where we had to use his own little (inferior) operating system with a strange editor and a single, limited pascal compiler. We learned only the top-down recursive approach, ignoring bottom-up. No fond memory. I had to study the Dragon book on my own just to get some perspective on compilers. He conflated his business interests with his teaching, going as far as collecting stats on how many of his books had been purchased from the Uni bookstore, and reminding us at the beginning of each session that the book (his book) was obligatory and that photocopying was illegal (it was not) and that he would expel anyone caught studying using a copy of his book.
- pekk 11y ago"Hackers" aren't cool, they are equated with "neckbeards." Today people prefer being called "software engineers," regardless of whether anything they do resembles engineering.