[Info-vax] And another one bites the dust....

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 2/20/2022 12:17 AM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 2/19/2022 11:02 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> On 2/19/22 21:07, Dan Cross wrote:
> 
> Bit of a trim of the old stuff needed ...
> 
> To me, a university is there to teach a person how to think and learn.
> 
> When my son started school, he asked "what type of job should I learn to 
> do?". My reply was "You aren't going to learn a job.  You're going there 
> to learn how to learn, and think, and to learn about the world that you 
> haven't seen yet."
> 
> As to teaching Cobol, learning computer languages should be a part of 
> university, if the student chooses.  I had a semester of Cobol when I 
> was in school, maybe 50 some years ago.

> As for skills, to me is seems it always comes down to OJT.  No school is 
> going to teach exactly what a particular employer needs.  Some basics, 
> and how to learn, yes.  Details, no.
> 
> As an example, I was taught about linked lists.  I wasn't taught about 
> what I needed them for, that came later on the job.  The school taught 
> the concept, the job taught the need and design.

Yes.

The software world is quite diverse when it comes to problem
domains, development methodologies, programming languages,
libraries and tools.

It is not realistic for an education to cover what is
going to be used.

Furthermore people will be working 40-45 years after
getting their degree.

Even if what they learn is actually used in their
first job, then it it unlikely to be used in their
last jobs.

They key is to learn to think the right way.

And I think it sort of get proved by the fact that
people with non-IT degrees like math, physics, chemistry,
astronomy etc. tend to get just as good software
developers as those with an IT degree in computer science
or software engineering.

So priorities:
1) Learn to think the right way
2) Learn the general stuff that keeps being relevant
    about data structures, algorithms etc.  "the Knuth stuff"
...
99) Learn some specific technologies needed by the industry last year.

What programming languages to learn is less important.

I will recommend at least 3 to get a broad perspective.

And they should of course be a bit different to achieve that goal, so:
- both static and dynamic types
- include procedural, object oriented, generic and functional
   programming

Popular languages in education has changed over time.

Something like:

Pascal -> C -> C++ and Delphi -> Python, Java and C#

I don't think there is many aspects of Cobol that makes it
relevant in education.

Maybe for something including ISAM files.

Arne