[Tfug] Re: CIS faculty at PCC west disavow existence of Linux classes

[Teena]

Leo Przybylski wrote:

>I absolutely agree with. Most of the CS students that UA is 
>churning out lack a lot of Computer Science fundamentals <snip>

I'm very surprised by your impression of the UA CS department, but perhaps I'm biased since I received my Computer Science degree from that very same department a year ago. Granted, this is not Stanford or MIT but the faculty of this department are some of the top in their field; not the least of whom was Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian.

>Maybe this has much to do with CS' s main focus on 
>compilers/interpreters and programming languages. I've 
>noticed that ECE focuses much on fundamentals of patterns, >algorithms, operating systems and hardware with embedded >instruction sets.

Typically, an academic Computer Science program at the university level grows as an extension of either the Math department or the Engineering department. The emphasis on either "hardware" or "software" is often apparent as to which of these departments it grows from. 

A distinction must be made between the curricula of ECE and CS. ECE focuses on the engineering fundementals -- architecture, hardware design, etc. whereas CS focuses on programming, compilers, filesystems, data structures, and algorithms. It would be erroneous to make judgements on the quality ECE program 
against a CS program without taking into account the disparate objectives of both programs. I would accept a comparison between the Computer Science programs at other universities but not between the ECE and CS within the same university.

>I believe that with CS's focus on interpreters and programming >languages that more CS would be involved than it actually is. 

A good CS program should teach an in depth understanding of interpreters, compiler design and programming language paradigms -- it would not be a complete CS program without it. 

>Even the OOP is sub-par.

I would also strongly deny this. You don't simply become a UA Computer Science student. You must be accepted into the program before you can continue past the 2nd year. A large part of that requirement is to get a B or better in Object Oriented Programming and Design courses. There is a huge emphasis on learning good programming design principles during this "pre-CS" period. If you don't learn it, you will not be accepted to the program until you do.

>Of course, I have never actually taken any of the CS classes or >the ECE classes. I only obtain this information from students >that come in my way.

Take a look at the respective websites of both the CS and ECE programs. Talk to students who are actually accepted in either program and who are successful in those programs; or take a class yourself. Do this before making judgements about the quality of a very worthy academic program and the graduates thereof.

Teena
jasmint at mindspring dot com