[Info-vax] Seasons Greetings

[Bob Eager]

On Fri, 2 Jan 2009 16:58:56 UTC, billg999 at cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) 
wrote:

> In article <673db$495d5156$cef8b0f3$24305 at teksavvy.com-free>,
>         "John Smith \(not the one @ HP\)" <a at nonymous.com> writes:
> > 
> > "Neil Rieck" <n.rieck at sympatico.ca> wrote in message 
> > news:3b0eebdf-94cb-4d69-8c82-a58bdd85cfca at f24g2000vbf.googlegroups.com...
> > 
> > When pressed further about rewriting business apps in modern computer
> > languages, he simply stated that those languages do not have the
> > features of COBOL so it was unlikely that big businesses would be
> > changing to something else anytime soon, if ever. So it was more
> > likely that older programmers would be pulled out of retirement before
> > schools started to place more emphasis on languages like COBOL when
> > training the next generation"
>  
> And this, once again, shows the complete lack of understanding the IT world
> has of the educational world.  No CS or CIS program worth its salt "teaches
> languages".  Wirth didn't create Pascal so he could teach Pascal.  A good
> CS/CIS graduate comes out of school knowing how to program.  The language
> should be chosen based on the task at hand and the capabilities of the
> various languages.  Actually coding in a given language is just syntax.

Absolutely spot on. CS is about teaching generalities to people who will
then be able to pick up the next new 'fashion', once they know and 
understand the fundamentals. It's education, not training (if someone 
wants to be taught, say, Java, they can pay money and have a nice short 
course from Sun; but they'll need to go back when the next new thing 
hits).

For those who believe that education *is* nothing but training:

  Would you prefer your teenage daughter to receive sex education at 
school
       - or sex training?

-- 
Bob Eager