3 ms·

From the article. "In Computer Science programs, there is a tradition of having a course of two that represent the watershed between people that can grok CS co

From the article. "In Computer Science programs, there is a tradition of having a course of two that represent the watershed between people that can grok CS concepts and the ones that can’t. " Would those HNers who've been through a masters or PhD in CS help an uneducated brother hacker and list any such "watershed" courses they know of? Thanks in advance. EDIT: links to course home pages would be highly appreciated, plus any reminiscences of how tough these courses were/felt like.

kovar 16y ago
In my undergrad CS program, it was Operating Systems. The course required us to move from writing programs to solve well constrained problems to addressing issues of memory management, file systems, command line interfaces, etc.
- doyoulikeworms 16y ago
  This was the same in my curriculum, and I'd throw in Compilers and CPU Architecture & Design as well. There's nothing like building a simple OS, compiler, and pipelined CPU to transform "the computer" from a magical black box into a supremely powerful, interesting tool.
HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
I was going to say AI, but then I remembered my AI course had us do a few small projects in Prolog... Really, though, I'd say AI. Mainly because there is often no a "right" answer, just the "best" one given the inputs and problem space. It gets you thinking in a more non-deterministic way, if that makes any sense.
jff 16y ago
I recently completed my master's in Computer Engineering. I found Computer Architecture and the assembly & C courses to be very enlightening. In comp arch, you design data flows, learn how memory and cache work, etc. In assembly and C, you then interact with that same hardware in a pretty direct fashion. Great insights into how computers work.
glenjamin 16y ago
The Haskell modules were the real deal for me, was my first intro to that programming style, and I subsequently carried over the functional style to python, ruby and even php!

kovar 16y ago

In my undergrad CS program, it was Operating Systems. The course required us to move from writing programs to solve well constrained problems to addressing issues of memory management, file systems, command line interfaces, etc.

doyoulikeworms 16y ago
This was the same in my curriculum, and I'd throw in Compilers and CPU Architecture & Design as well. There's nothing like building a simple OS, compiler, and pipelined CPU to transform "the computer" from a magical black box into a supremely powerful, interesting tool.

HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago

I was going to say AI, but then I remembered my AI course had us do a few small projects in Prolog... Really, though, I'd say AI. Mainly because there is often no a "right" answer, just the "best" one given the inputs and problem space. It gets you thinking in a more non-deterministic way, if that makes any sense.

jff 16y ago

I recently completed my master's in Computer Engineering. I found Computer Architecture and the assembly & C courses to be very enlightening. In comp arch, you design data flows, learn how memory and cache work, etc. In assembly and C, you then interact with that same hardware in a pretty direct fashion. Great insights into how computers work.

glenjamin 16y ago

The Haskell modules were the real deal for me, was my first intro to that programming style, and I subsequently carried over the functional style to python, ruby and even php!