5 ms·

Last time I checked with a university, they dropped half of the hardcore stuff, and teach more Java/Python. YMMV.

BlackJack 15y ago
A sample size of 1 is not representative. If the university is more interested in teaching "programming," then that's fine, but if you want a solid grasp of computer science, then most of those subjects are still necessary.
- unimpressive 15y ago
  I do. Thank you for the link. It doesn't really matter what universities do or don't teach. If a subject is of interest you should learn it. I thought everything you and the linked article listed made sense.
  - andys627 15y ago
    Yeah... so one thing I love about being self taught was that I've learned because I wanted to do a project, and I learned the most simple tools to accomplish those projects. I'm sure I missed some stuff beacuse I was never forced to do it in a class. I think what would be most helpful is - what are the topics that made you most well rounded, that you would be a crappier coder without, that you took during a CS degree. Also, what are some important theoretical things that paradigm shifted your brain cells for the benefit of every following line of code.
Locke1689 15y ago
Which university? I can tell you that's not true of my university (Northwestern) and most of the peer institutions. To a certain extent I agree with Joel Spolsky's old article on Java schools[1]. The one gripe I would have to make is that I believe that there are many useful tasks which are hard more than for the sake of being hard. My compiler's course was quite difficult but at the same time very informative. One thing we didn't do is write a parser. When I asked my professor (now advisor) why not, he responded that writing a parser is more of a character-building exercise. I tend to agree. While very tricky, I find that in the context of university classes so much time is spent writing a parser that more interesting topics in compilers are completely omitted. There's always benefit in deeper understanding, but one must try to identify the richest areas for learning. [1] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ThePerilsofJavaSchools.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ThePerilsofJavaSchool...

A sample size of 1 is not representative. If the university is more interested in teaching "programming," then that's fine, but if you want a solid grasp of computer science, then most of those subjects are still necessary.

unimpressive 15y ago
I do. Thank you for the link. It doesn't really matter what universities do or don't teach. If a subject is of interest you should learn it. I thought everything you and the linked article listed made sense.
- andys627 15y ago
  Yeah... so one thing I love about being self taught was that I've learned because I wanted to do a project, and I learned the most simple tools to accomplish those projects. I'm sure I missed some stuff beacuse I was never forced to do it in a class. I think what would be most helpful is - what are the topics that made you most well rounded, that you would be a crappier coder without, that you took during a CS degree. Also, what are some important theoretical things that paradigm shifted your brain cells for the benefit of every following line of code.

Locke1689 15y ago

Which university? I can tell you that's not true of my university (Northwestern) and most of the peer institutions. To a certain extent I agree with Joel Spolsky's old article on Java schools[1]. The one gripe I would have to make is that I believe that there are many useful tasks which are hard more than for the sake of being hard. My compiler's course was quite difficult but at the same time very informative. One thing we didn't do is write a parser. When I asked my professor (now advisor) why not, he responded that writing a parser is more of a character-building exercise. I tend to agree. While very tricky, I find that in the context of university classes so much time is spent writing a parser that more interesting topics in compilers are completely omitted. There's always benefit in deeper understanding, but one must try to identify the richest areas for learning. [1] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ThePerilsofJavaSchools.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ThePerilsofJavaSchool...