>It's much like programming languages. We don't care much if you graduate knowing a particular language -- any CMU CS graduate should be able to pick up a new l

>It's much like programming languages. We don't care much if you graduate knowing a particular language -- any CMU CS graduate should be able to pick up a new language in short order. We care greatly that you've been exposed to a mix of programming styles and thinking -- imperative, functional, and logical or declarative, and can successfully use those tools to reason about code, program structure, algorithms, and data structures. I completely support this philosophy. > Compilers can be more or less of a systems course depending on who teaches it So what happens when it's less of a systems course? Do students taking that section lack a critical component of the CS major?