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Universities are there to get you a job. In fact, it's part of their marketing strategy. In technical curricula, nearly every decision they make is based arou

by fnid2 17y ago

Universities are there to get you a job. In fact, it's part of their marketing strategy. In technical curricula, nearly every decision they make is based around predictions of future job growth. It is a very real problem right now, because technical jobs are changing so fast. The universities don't know what to teach kids. Corporations aren't hiring people to write Fortran or C++. They hire them to write .NET and Java, so students are going to universities who are teaching them those languages instead of the universities who concentrate on the primary purposes you state. It's very hard to sell students on the principles you describe. They'll get that at ANY university, so what distinguishes programs among different universities, essentially comes down to ROI for the tuition.

robryan 17y ago
This is true, otherwise why would the first thing taught be Java? (what happens at my uni). The ordering that follows seems to much more promote churning out a Java/C++ programmer who knows how to use and create detailed UML documentation. You don't do any assembly or VHDL type close to the metal stuff unless your doing a 4 year degree that incorporates EE classes. There is a class called computer systems architecture that's in 3rd year I think. I've seen people in this class just not get it, so in a sense they have been learning to program for years in an abstract way and don't have a clue what the computer does with their program. Thankfully there isn't to much .NET which I feel would be even more of a specialization than java, especially if it were VB.NET
- makmanalp 17y ago
  Not all unis are like that. We start with functional programming and programming essentials in general with Scheme (lisp derivative), and then do some object oriented stuff with java, and then some systems programming with C. None of the classes are related to the specific language, the language is a tool to illustrate the concepts. These are all in the first and second years. After that, there are more advanced classes in each topic. Maybe some schools are just doing it wrong?
  - robryan 17y ago
    I'd say so, we get a bit of lisp in AI and some C systems programming later which are done right, with more focus on the concept than the language. It's just the initial Java classes which place a lot of emphasis on the language rather than the concepts.

by fnid2 17y ago

robryan 17y ago

This is true, otherwise why would the first thing taught be Java? (what happens at my uni). The ordering that follows seems to much more promote churning out a Java/C++ programmer who knows how to use and create detailed UML documentation. You don't do any assembly or VHDL type close to the metal stuff unless your doing a 4 year degree that incorporates EE classes. There is a class called computer systems architecture that's in 3rd year I think. I've seen people in this class just not get it, so in a sense they have been learning to program for years in an abstract way and don't have a clue what the computer does with their program. Thankfully there isn't to much .NET which I feel would be even more of a specialization than java, especially if it were VB.NET

makmanalp 17y ago
Not all unis are like that. We start with functional programming and programming essentials in general with Scheme (lisp derivative), and then do some object oriented stuff with java, and then some systems programming with C. None of the classes are related to the specific language, the language is a tool to illustrate the concepts. These are all in the first and second years. After that, there are more advanced classes in each topic. Maybe some schools are just doing it wrong?
- robryan 17y ago
  I'd say so, we get a bit of lisp in AI and some C systems programming later which are done right, with more focus on the concept than the language. It's just the initial Java classes which place a lot of emphasis on the language rather than the concepts.