Re: Testing job applicants

[genew@shuswap.net (Gene Wirchenko)]

Pete Fenelon <pete@fenelon.com> wrote:

[snip]

>Agreed 200%. There's far too much emphasis in introductory courses on 
>language syntax and specifics. Ideally, whoever teaches CS101 or
>its equivalent should just teach algorithms and data structures; the
>mechanical details of programming are something anyone with enough
>talent can pick up given time.  Drilling it into heads that prefer to

     I disagree.

     The data should be applicable right away.  Sitting for a semester
learning algorithms without actually doing it?  Bad.

     The student ought to be able to program something.  Keep the
algorithms and syntax in balance.  What I think would be worthwhile is
to review assignments AFTER.  I'm planning a tutoring "course" where I
will do this.  I can see it now:

     "Last week, you wrote a program that read in a set of numbers and
output it sorted.  How might you have done it better?"  This would be
a good way to introduce (among many other things):
  1) the usefulness of different algorithms
  2) standard libraries (qsort())
  3) why to avoid magic numbers.

[snip]

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
     I have preferences.
     You have biases.
     He/She has prejudices.