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Article #620867Re: Computer science hot major in college (article)
From: Mike Spencer
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2018 06:21
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2018 06:21
34 lines
3209 bytes
3209 bytes
Peter Flass <peter...@yahoo.com> writes: > J. Clarke <jclarke...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Unfortunately, "Computer Scientists" these days don't seem to have to >> do mundane things like writing code. And they get snarky if anyone >> suggests that there's anything wrong with this--they're working on the >> Great Advances, code is for the trade schools, according to them. >> > > Always was like that. A local community college had great success with a > program that included COBOL, JCL, and CICS. Graduates usually had jobs > waiting when they got out. In 1964, when my school had one computer (IBM 1620) they offered a course in "computer programming" for which I signed up. It was taught by a guy seconded from industry. He specified a textbook on numerical methods and proposed to teach us that. Half the class announced that they would drop the course if he didn't teach us how write programs. Despite his protest that you can't write programs unless you know the math, he saw the light and gave us an intro to Fortran. We each wrote one small program related to our disparate majors -- key punch, cards, submit to operator, line printer and all that. Didn't touch a computer again until 1980 when I borrowed an Apple ][ and learned Basic. Then not again for seven years, when I got an Osborne I, learned C, z80 assembler. Now I'm the digital equivalent of a chronic alcoholic. Might never have happened if I'd dropped that course in '64. -- Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada
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X-Received: by 10.36.170.13 with SMTP id b13mr764993itf.4.1519366892652; Thu, 22 Feb 2018 22:21:32 -0800 (PST) X-BeenThere: alt.folklore.computers@googlegroups.com Received: by 10.107.78.26 with SMTP id c26ls1287306iob.17.gmail; Thu, 22 Feb 2018 22:21:31 -0800 (PST) X-Received: by 10.107.84.8 with SMTP id i8mr413812iob.66.1519366891514; Thu, 22 Feb 2018 22:21:31 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!s63ni1899itb.0!nntp.google.com!border1.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!news.alt.net!sewer!news.mixmin.net!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Computer science hot major in college (article) Date: 23 Feb 2018 02:21:26 -0400 Organization: Bridgewater Institute for Advanced Study - Blacksmith Shop Lines: 34 Message-ID: <87a7w0dy55.fsf@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> References: <8242dc95-b34a-426b-8502-a1df37f19358@googlegroups.com> <p6knl7$q2i$1@dont-email.me> <slrnp8rud9.2k6.mausg@smaus.org> <o19s8dhn9tkih95kifekq09pmqe07sfooj@4ax.com> <1674186159.541019398.108194.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> Injection-Info: reader02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="4fbd72c232f992d21baded9a0df34362"; logging-data="8845"; mail-complaints-to="ab...@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/XRZRoLdkvyvLPHOpGxFWm5E9WuBCQSAg=" X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.7 Cancel-Lock: sha1:o6sIXRF/oqwcinubwwq5iiXuuu4= X-Clacks-Overhead: 4GH GNU Terry Pratchett Bytes: 2684 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit