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

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

#21

Post by derefr »

jcromartie wrote: post #17
bilcorry wrote: post #14

Computer Science can be taught without a student ever having used a computer; it's a branch of mathematics. Would you expect a mathematician to know what a .tar file is? Reminds me of a quote from one of the most famous Computer Scientists, who was really a mathematician: "Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." - E. W. Dijkstra (1930 - 2002)

This is true, in the purest sense of CS. However, how much pure mathematical theory can you fill three and a half years of university education with? I would imagine that a comp sci department where they never reach a point where the "rubber meets the road" is not worth the trouble.

> I would imagine that a comp sci department where they never reach a point where the "rubber meets the road" is not worth the trouble.

...unless your rubber has already met your own personal road long ago. I, personally, learned everything practical I needed to know about programming long before I stepped into a CS class, mostly from self-teaching and the web; I only took CS to "straighten out" my theoretical knowledge. I would have loved a CS department with no computers installed (except perhaps for interactive debugging after it's already clear that you can express yourself in pseudocode.)

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

#22

Post by jdavid »

Kaizyn wrote: post #5
amichail wrote: post #2

This isn't a big deal.

Why isn't it?

this is important, because anyone with any degree of genuine curiosity will have at least seen a tar file in the context of compression. if you use winrar, tar files are included in the open file list. with any sense of curiosity and intuition one would guess a tar file has to do with compression.

i may not expect someone to know how to use a tar, but i would expect them to know what one is.

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

#23

Post by aristus »

derefr wrote: post #21
jcromartie wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true, in the purest sense of CS. However, how much pure mathematical theory can you fill three and a half years of university education with? I would imagine that a comp sci department where they never reach a point where the "rubber meets the road" is not worth the trouble.

> I would imagine that a comp sci department where they never reach a point where the "rubber meets the road" is not worth the trouble. ...unless your rubber has already met your own personal road long ago. I, personally, learned everything practical I needed to know about programming long before I stepped into a CS class, mostly from self-teaching and the web; I only took CS to "straighten out" my theoretical knowle…

OT: I'm in a similar situation: I've 11 years' experience and want to take some CS classes now that I live near Berkeley. Any tips?

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

#24

Post by SwellJoe »

amichail wrote: post #7
Kaizyn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The question is how can he have studied a wide enough variety of source code in a wide enough variety of languages to be competent without having seen tarballs? The best source code on the planet is generally available in tarball form (and occasionally also a zip as an afterthought). Not having seen a tarball means, "I have no interest in seeing other peoples code", which means they will never write good code. It takes years of reading and learning from other peoples good code to write good code of your own.

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

#25

Post by iamelgringo »

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.

I'm in my final year of school. (Career Changing). And, I've been trying to explain the benefits of a decent text editor to a couple of my fellow students. They're still using Notepad to edit SQL for their Advanced databases class.

We're a Java/ .net school, but still... I'm pretty upset that they don't know what a text editor is.

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

#26

Post by Xichekolas »

andreyf wrote: post #16

Short answer: No, assuming you meant "should every CS senior know what a .tar file is?". Long answer: Not always. Large and fascinating branches of CS has nothing to do with computers. A programmer looking to work on UNIX-based file systems should know what a .tar file is. A commitment to GUI interfaces (and general mouse love) and not knowing .tar files probably just means the person had only seen Windows. I'd say t…

On the other hand, the CS program has a pretty glaring hole if it doesn't at least have an intro seminar into Unix-like operating systems, where things like tar files would surely be on the syllabus. I know I was offered a free week long seminar (about an hour a night) on Linux and gnu tools as a freshman at KU. Unix-like OS's make up a sizeable chunk of the programming landscape, so it would be strange to never mention them.

Maybe his CS program is super-theoretical and doesn't concern itself with implementation. Of course, it's far more likely that it's a lightweight shop turning out blub programmers.

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

#27

Post by Xichekolas »

aristus wrote: post #23
derefr wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would imagine that a comp sci department where they never reach a point where the "rubber meets the road" is not worth the trouble. ...unless your rubber has already met your own personal road long ago. I, personally, learned everything practical I needed to know about programming long before I stepped into a CS class, mostly from self-teaching and the web; I only took CS to "straighten out" my theoretical knowle…

OT: I'm in a similar situation: I've 11 years' experience and want to take some CS classes now that I live near Berkeley. Any tips?

I can't speak for Berkeley, but my favorite classes in CS were always the ones on Algorithms and novel languages.

Avoid classes that teach syntax, unless the syntax is used to highlight a language feature you have never encountered before, like continuations or currying.

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

#30

Post by omouse »

iamelgringo wrote: post #25
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.

I'm in my final year of school. (Career Changing). And, I've been trying to explain the benefits of a decent text editor to a couple of my fellow students. They're still using Notepad to edit SQL for their Advanced databases class. We're a Java/ .net school, but still... I'm pretty upset that they don't know what a text editor is.

While at college I was upset that they taught some text editor that a prof. at the college wrote. Also, they only taught `vi` in Linux/UNIX classes. As an Emacs user I was offended! :P
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