11–17 of 17 posts
What About Copying/Cheating? * Reduce salience of project grades? – Exams can test whether student mastered the material Most of my CS classes didn't give exams and were graded entirely on projects. I found this to be one of the best features of my CS education. Projects are vastly more interesting, impactful, and representative of meaningful learning.
What About Copying/Cheating? * Reduce salience of project grades? – Exams can test whether student mastered the material Most of my CS classes didn't give exams and were graded entirely on projects. I found this to be one of the best features of my CS education. Projects are vastly more interesting, impactful, and representative of meaningful learning.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really like this view. But any time I have suggested something similar (I think I might draw a different separation point between programmers/engineers in the general case), I have been accused of gate keeping. The argument against is often phrased in such a way that enforcing, or even defining, separate ‘professions’ for individuals in software careers and those professions having differing requirements, is seen a…
For some obtuse reason people think software is some ethereal magic abstraction that somehow doesn't follow any rules or practices. We have to start pushing for the fact that yes, to engineer software you need a true engineer just like to engineer a house you need a true engineer. Nobody ever laments the fact that it's clear that basic construction workers could never engineer a building following all the best practi…
Overall, university diploma means absolutely nothing to me - sometimes it's a minus (because it sometimes grows a specific attitude that has no place in my teams). The only working indicator is time spent doing the job + personal interview.
I believe we should move to a world where programmers aren't required a degree and software engineers have very high requirements. Programming is very simple, turning a flow chart into code is as easy as mounting an IKEA furniture once you know the basic features of the language you are using. Architecturing a software on the other hand needs a level of understanding, rigor and effort such that we should seek good CS…
Of course, many startups don't have a software architect and they allow "regular" engineers to design the system, but that wouldn't change just because the industry decides that it isn't the programmer's job to design systems.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really like this view. But any time I have suggested something similar (I think I might draw a different separation point between programmers/engineers in the general case), I have been accused of gate keeping. The argument against is often phrased in such a way that enforcing, or even defining, separate ‘professions’ for individuals in software careers and those professions having differing requirements, is seen a…
For some obtuse reason people think software is some ethereal magic abstraction that somehow doesn't follow any rules or practices. We have to start pushing for the fact that yes, to engineer software you need a true engineer just like to engineer a house you need a true engineer. Nobody ever laments the fact that it's clear that basic construction workers could never engineer a building following all the best practi…
Imagine, if you will, the practices that would have been taught to the "By the book" computer engineers who graduated in 2000. Would you think it happy to have those practices dominant, by regulation, today? Would you want to have the task of lobbying the professional standards committees to update the curriculum so that a decade from now the thing you think is important would be accepted practice?
I think that the difficulty we have updating e.g. language versions or crypto practices is a good model for how well our field responds when we do things more formally. Imagine how long python 2 would be around if it had been the basis for professional credentials for decades!
I believe we should move to a world where programmers aren't required a degree and software engineers have very high requirements. Programming is very simple, turning a flow chart into code is as easy as mounting an IKEA furniture once you know the basic features of the language you are using. Architecturing a software on the other hand needs a level of understanding, rigor and effort such that we should seek good CS…
I really like this view. But any time I have suggested something similar (I think I might draw a different separation point between programmers/engineers in the general case), I have been accused of gate keeping. The argument against is often phrased in such a way that enforcing, or even defining, separate ‘professions’ for individuals in software careers and those professions having differing requirements, is seen a…
That said, there is probably not such a gap between a programmer and a computer scientist--especially in terms of the skills needed for most software jobs.
I believe we should move to a world where programmers aren't required a degree and software engineers have very high requirements. Programming is very simple, turning a flow chart into code is as easy as mounting an IKEA furniture once you know the basic features of the language you are using. Architecturing a software on the other hand needs a level of understanding, rigor and effort such that we should seek good CS…
I really like this view. But any time I have suggested something similar (I think I might draw a different separation point between programmers/engineers in the general case), I have been accused of gate keeping. The argument against is often phrased in such a way that enforcing, or even defining, separate ‘professions’ for individuals in software careers and those professions having differing requirements, is seen a…