[Tfug] Cheap Memory, etc.

[Robert Hunter]

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On Fri, Dec 21, 2007 at 09:56:34PM -0700, Bowie J. Poag wrote:
> 
> /* Speculation:  I think their biggest problem can be boiled down to one 
> word: Java.

When I was there, the introductory courses were taught in Java.
Otherwise, many of the courses with a programming component were
implemented in the C programming language, and possibly other ones, as
well.  I do agree that, on the whole, the emphasis was less about
software engineering, and more about theoretical principles.  However,
some of the programming projects in the upper division classes were
quite challenging.  So, you were expected, more or less, to pick up
the software engineering stuff on your own time.

Software engineering should probably be a separate degree program at
the UofA, but that is not likely to happen because of funding issues.
Personally, that doesn't bother me so much as the fact that there
seems to be very little collaborative work between CS and other
departments.  In this day and age, programmers are a commodity.  I
don't think we need more legions of code monkeys that can bang out
Hello-world programs.  I do think we need more programmers with domain
knowledge in applied areas.

- -- 
Rob







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