So Joel On Software has published an article that I really have to agree with. I think there's a huge amount of script kiddies out there that just cannot function when things get REALLY hard...if things like pointer manipulation and recurrsion aren't learned.Excerpt from Joel on Software's blog post:
You used to start out in college with a course in data structures, with linked lists and hash tables and whatnot, with extensive use of pointers. Those courses were often used as weedout courses: they were so hard that anyone that couldn't handle the mental challenge of a CS degree would give up, which was a good thing, because if you thought pointers are hard, wait until you try to prove things about fixed point theory.
Just as I arrived to college and Java was barely starting to get some steam, Cal Poly Pomona switched to teaching the intro classes in Java vs. Ada. I found that rather odd at the time, but I was very fortunate to have gotten my C programming "shock" from the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. Unfortunately I don't know what kind of crack they are smoking but they are now teaching the Intro to Programming and Data Structures classes with C#.
All the kids who did great in high school writing pong games in BASIC for their Apple II would get to college, take CompSci 101, a data structures course, and when they hit the pointers business their brains would just totally explode, and the next thing you knew, they were majoring in Political Science because law school seemed like a better idea. I've seen all kinds of figures for drop-out rates in CS and they're usually between 40% and 70%. The universities tend to see this as a waste; I think it's just a necessary culling of the people who aren't going to be happy or successful in programming careers.
With the excerpt above the same could be applied to all of those VB Script people now turned C# .NET evangelists out there. I remember programming in BASIC on my Commadore 64 and 128! It was awesome, but nothing compared to my first Intro to C Programming class, and Data Structures classes in college. I think there is a lot to blame on these Universities wanting to process as many alumni as possible. So the last time I checked "higher education" does not equate to just any old education. It becomes more of a business than anything else, and what in the huge scheme of this is sacrificed? The students! The very thing these professors, should be there for! End Rant. Keep up the good work Joel!
