3 ms·

eh I don't really feel that a professor should go through and explain common filetypes, that really isn't computer science. However, if a 21 year old is passi

by utnick 19y ago

eh I don't really feel that a professor should go through and explain common filetypes, that really isn't computer science. However, if a 21 year old is passionate about programming, they will have come into contact with a command line and tar files on their own obviously.

ced 19y ago
At 21, I was pretty passionate about programming, but I had never dealt with a tar files. I was sticking with Windows because it just worked for me, and the barrier to installing a Linux on my PC seemed so huge (and they were. The first time I installed, it broke my FAT). It was just not worth it. Python works great on Windows, as does Corman Lisp. I'm passionnate about programming, but computers and OSes are just a pain getting in my way.
paulgb 19y ago
Agreed. It's not the school's responsibility to teach a student what a .tar is, but if the kid is doing any programming out of personal interest he should have come across it. In my experience, CS students who know what they are doing are usually using Mac or Linux by the time they graduate.
- ks 19y ago
  At my university, we used Unix for everything. We never had any lectures about how to use make, tar, cvs or LaTeX. But we were required to use them, so we had to learn stuff ourselves. I think that is the best way to learn, since it made us more independent.
iamelgringo 19y ago
I'm in my final year of school. (Career Changing). And, I've been trying to explain the benefits of a decent text editor to a couple of my fellow students. They're still using Notepad to edit SQL for their Advanced databases class. We're a Java/ .net school, but still... I'm pretty upset that they don't know what a text editor is.
- omouse 19y ago
  While at college I was upset that they taught some text editor that a prof. at the college wrote. Also, they only taught `vi` in Linux/UNIX classes. As an Emacs user I was offended! :P

by utnick 19y ago

ced 19y ago

At 21, I was pretty passionate about programming, but I had never dealt with a tar files. I was sticking with Windows because it just worked for me, and the barrier to installing a Linux on my PC seemed so huge (and they were. The first time I installed, it broke my FAT). It was just not worth it. Python works great on Windows, as does Corman Lisp. I'm passionnate about programming, but computers and OSes are just a pain getting in my way.

paulgb 19y ago

Agreed. It's not the school's responsibility to teach a student what a .tar is, but if the kid is doing any programming out of personal interest he should have come across it. In my experience, CS students who know what they are doing are usually using Mac or Linux by the time they graduate.

ks 19y ago
At my university, we used Unix for everything. We never had any lectures about how to use make, tar, cvs or LaTeX. But we were required to use them, so we had to learn stuff ourselves. I think that is the best way to learn, since it made us more independent.

iamelgringo 19y ago

I'm in my final year of school. (Career Changing). And, I've been trying to explain the benefits of a decent text editor to a couple of my fellow students. They're still using Notepad to edit SQL for their Advanced databases class. We're a Java/ .net school, but still... I'm pretty upset that they don't know what a text editor is.

omouse 19y ago
While at college I was upset that they taught some text editor that a prof. at the college wrote. Also, they only taught `vi` in Linux/UNIX classes. As an Emacs user I was offended! :P