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I sincerely hope every practical developer knows the complexity and costs of their algorithms, can write a simple parser, and reason about finite state machines
by gatlin 14y ago
I sincerely hope every practical developer knows the complexity and costs of their algorithms, can write a simple parser, and reason about finite state machines (ie, the non-trivial systems people build). I do get what you mean: CS is different than practical skills. Pure theory is interesting and less practical but all the things you mentioned have lots of uses in practice. You don't write a formal proof for every little thing but you use the conceptual tools.
- basseq 14y agoI'd expect managers who hire young people out of universities expect the conceptual tools and the theory, with the weakness being practical experience. And I'd say this is true across all majors (even vocational schools). And to my mind, that's the correct order: I'd rather teach someone the practical components rather than the theoretical ones while they're on the job. (Not to mention that practical components—even programming languages—are quickly out of date. Theory has a much longer shelf life.)