Re: Testing job applicants

[Mike Swaim <swaim@gemini.c-com.net>]

In alt.folklore.computers Pete Fenelon <pete@fenelon.com> wrote:
: Depends on the CS course. Good ones emphasise an engineering/systems
: approach encompassing high- and low-level software, and the way it
: maps onto hardware. The fact that there are tradeoffs to be made, and the
: tools for deciding how to make them, underpin the course. 

  A good CS program should cover both theory and practice. I've had CS
classes that were pure theory. I also had a (required) class on how
projects should be done. Both are necessary. I don't think that this is a
particularly engineering thing. When I was a physics major, we also had a
class on doing research properly.


: Bad ones teach "flavour of the month" programming languages and 
: trendy techniques.

  It's easier and faster to teach a good programmer a new language than to
teach someone who knows a language to be a good programmer.

-- 
Mike Swaim, Avatar of Chaos: Disclaimer:I sometimes lie.
Home: swaim@c-com.net
Alum: swaim@alumni.rice.edu  Quote: "Boingie"^4 Y,W&D