3 ms·

What does it even mean for a school to 'switch' languages? When I did my bachelors it was straight up a new language in each class, at the discretion of the pro

What does it even mean for a school to 'switch' languages? When I did my bachelors it was straight up a new language in each class, at the discretion of the prof in charge. Intro class homework was in Java, data structures was in C++, operating systems was in C, digital logic design was in Verilog, bioinformatics was in Python, ...

jakear 9y ago
Right, and if the professor of the intro class decided they didn't want to teach Java, and would prefer C++, they'd "switch" over to it... I don't see the confusion. C++ isn't the only language in the entire school, this is all about one intro class.
steveklabnik 9y ago
I'm not sure if it was an official policy or not, but at my school, all of the core classes were in Java. Other classes used other languages where appropriate, and "core classes" is not synonymous with "degree requirements"; you had to take classes that used not-Java. But Java was considered the default. Professors don't like having to waste time in their classes teaching a language, so there's a strong pull to unify as much as possible, so you can be 100% sure that your students have some form of knowledge before they get into your class. So, the "switch" would be changing that big block of core, required classes.
rrmm 9y ago
In large schools, lower-level intro classes can be huge (many classes with many students in each class), so there's usually an extremely standardized (and mechanized) curriculum that ensures everyone learns basically the same thing and labs and recitation sections are interchangeble. So when they switch languages, they mean moving all this curriculum to another language at once. The higher level courses don't change.
blackflame7000 9y ago
The major shift came when CollegeBoard switched the AP Computer Science exam from C++ to JAVA about 15 years ago.

3 ms·

What does it even mean for a school to 'switch' languages? When I did my bachelors it was straight up a new language in each class, at the discretion of the pro

by electricslpnsld 9y ago

jakear 9y ago
Right, and if the professor of the intro class decided they didn't want to teach Java, and would prefer C++, they'd "switch" over to it... I don't see the confusion. C++ isn't the only language in the entire school, this is all about one intro class.
steveklabnik 9y ago
I'm not sure if it was an official policy or not, but at my school, all of the core classes were in Java. Other classes used other languages where appropriate, and "core classes" is not synonymous with "degree requirements"; you had to take classes that used not-Java. But Java was considered the default. Professors don't like having to waste time in their classes teaching a language, so there's a strong pull to unify as much as possible, so you can be 100% sure that your students have some form of knowledge before they get into your class. So, the "switch" would be changing that big block of core, required classes.
rrmm 9y ago
In large schools, lower-level intro classes can be huge (many classes with many students in each class), so there's usually an extremely standardized (and mechanized) curriculum that ensures everyone learns basically the same thing and labs and recitation sections are interchangeble. So when they switch languages, they mean moving all this curriculum to another language at once. The higher level courses don't change.
blackflame7000 9y ago
The major shift came when CollegeBoard switched the AP Computer Science exam from C++ to JAVA about 15 years ago.