Should a senior in Comp Sci know what a .tar file is?

#1

Post by jcromartie » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 1:01 AM UTC

Today at work I met an intern who happened to be a senior in computer science at a well-known area college. While helping them to get started on an assignment, it struck me as odd when they were working in Notepad, double-clicking what were obviously command-line programs, and didn't know what a .tar file was.

Who is to blame here? Clearly the student doesn't have a passion for what they are studying. On the other hand, how does a computer science department let students go nearly 4 years without exposure to things like UNIX-like operating systems?

Re: Should a senior in Comp Sci know what a .tar file is?

#2

Post by amichail » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 1:04 AM UTC

This isn't a big deal.

Re: Should a senior in Comp Sci know what a .tar file is?

#3

Post by utnick » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 1:12 AM UTC

eh

I don't really feel that a professor should go through and explain common filetypes, that really isn't computer science.

However, if a 21 year old is passionate about programming, they will have come into contact with a command line and tar files on their own obviously.

Re: Should a senior in Comp Sci know what a .tar file is?

#4

Post by mixmax » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 1:19 AM UTC

I'm not a programmer and I found your example horrific.

It seems like a biz guy not knowing what excel is.

Re: Should a senior in Comp Sci know what a .tar file is?

#5

Post by Kaizyn » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 1:34 AM UTC

amichail wrote: post #2

This isn't a big deal.

Why isn't it?

Re: Should a senior in Comp Sci know what a .tar file is?

#6

Post by dallasrpi » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 1:41 AM UTC

We had a guy at our company with a Masters in cs and he didn't know the shortcuts for copy and paste! His first code review was unbelievably painful. Suffice to say he didn't last too long.

Re: Should a senior in Comp Sci know what a .tar file is?

#7

Post by amichail » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 1:49 AM UTC

Kaizyn wrote: post #5

amichail wrote: post #2

This isn't a big deal.

Why isn't it?

What's important is whether this person has any important skills that you care about. Also, it's quite possible to get by under Windows without knowing anything about tar files.

Re: Should a senior in Comp Sci know what a .tar file is?

#8

Post by paulgb » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 2:13 AM UTC

utnick wrote: post #3

eh I don't really feel that a professor should go through and explain common filetypes, that really isn't computer science. However, if a 21 year old is passionate about programming, they will have come into contact with a command line and tar files on their own obviously.

Agreed. It's not the school's responsibility to teach a student what a .tar is, but if the kid is doing any programming out of personal interest he should have come across it.

In my experience, CS students who know what they are doing are usually using Mac or Linux by the time they graduate.

Re: Should a senior in Comp Sci know what a .tar file is?

#9

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 2:33 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Should a senior in Comp Sci know what a .tar file is?

#10

Post by aggieben » Sat, Mar 08, 2008, 3:12 AM UTC

yes.