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Computer science courses that don't exist, but should (2015)

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Re: Computer science courses that don't exist, but should (2015)

#291

Post by johnnyanmac »

omosubi wrote: post #45

I would add debugging as a course. Maybe they should teach this but how to dive deep into figuring out how to learn the root cause of defects and various tools would have been enormously helpful for me. Perhaps this already exists

I feel like that's something you pick from solving problems. You hit something, printf and check work, repeat.

Repwat for 2 yeaes. Rhen later on, my Systems Programming course would give an overview of GDB, Valgrind, and tease the class with GProf. It'd even warn us on the dangers of debugging hypnosis. But that was all the extent of formal debugging I got. The rest was on the job or during projects.

Re: Computer science courses that don't exist, but should (2015)

#292

Post by johnnyanmac »

zkmon wrote: post #140

> CSCI 2100: Unlearning Object-Oriented Programming?? People in tech industry, seem to have no idea how the systems in the wild work. Enterprise Java runs the backbone of operations for all of large business organisations such as banks. It is just as grounded as MS Office is. It is object-oriented software that is running the bulk of production environments of the world. Who is going to maintain these systems for the…

It will vary by domains. I work in games, so unlearning OOP and understanding data oriented paradigms helped immensely understanding how to optimize.

But I'm not a data oriented evangelist. Part of that paradigm is understanding the size and predictability of data, and not everything in games meets this. Input is the most obvious example. But knowing when and where to use such techniques is arguably what separates an engineer from a programmer. But schools can go a tad overboard focusing on one technique.

Unlearning can also help you appreciate OOP more as well. I wouldn't have dug too much onto c++ vtables without a goal to understand why Polymorphism can be so slow. But I can also appreciate how clever the implementation is to get that far to begin with.

Re: Computer science courses that don't exist, but should (2015)

#293

Post by kunley »

kragen wrote: post #274
imtringued wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone hates it.

There are always a few trolls who complain about how other people spell their words, wear their hair, format their dates, choose their clothes, etc. Usually on HN these complaints get flagged into oblivion pretty quickly. But most people don't care, preferring to read about things like the interaction between technological development and digital art forms than complaints about whether "aluminum" should actually be s…

I would rather attribute the term "few trolls", if to use it at all, to the people pushing an agenda for a thing happening in 8000 years.

Re: Computer science courses that don't exist, but should (2015)

#294

Post by rightbyte »

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #177
rightbyte wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on music is very much cross generational? I think software engineering have so many social problems to a level that other fields just don't have. Dogmatism, superstition, toxicity ... you name it.

"Dogmatism, superstition, toxicity" You must not know any electricians. These behaviors are far from unique to one field.

Might be a greener grass effect. Hard for me to tell.

Re: Computer science courses that don't exist, but should (2015)

#295

Post by AmeliaMN »

corysama wrote: post #10

> CSCI 3300: Classical Software Studies Alan Kay, my favorite curmudgeon, spent decades trying to remind us we keep reinventing concepts that were worked out in the late 70s and he’s disappointed we’ve been running in circles ever since. He’s still disappointed because very few programmers are ever introduced to the history of computer science in the way that artists study the history of art or philosophers the histo…

When I was a graduate student at UCLA, I signed up for a CS course that turned out to secretly be "the Alan Kay show." He showed up every week and lectured about computer science history. Didn't learn much about programming language design that semester (what the course ostensibly was) but it was one of my most formative experiences.

Re: Computer science courses that don't exist, but should (2015)

#296

Post by daninus14 »

AmeliaMN wrote: post #295
corysama wrote: post #10

> CSCI 3300: Classical Software Studies Alan Kay, my favorite curmudgeon, spent decades trying to remind us we keep reinventing concepts that were worked out in the late 70s and he’s disappointed we’ve been running in circles ever since. He’s still disappointed because very few programmers are ever introduced to the history of computer science in the way that artists study the history of art or philosophers the histo…

When I was a graduate student at UCLA, I signed up for a CS course that turned out to secretly be "the Alan Kay show." He showed up every week and lectured about computer science history. Didn't learn much about programming language design that semester (what the course ostensibly was) but it was one of my most formative experiences.

This sounds amazing. Any chance there are videos of that course available?

Re: Computer science courses that don't exist, but should (2015)

#297

Post by markus_zhang »

omosubi wrote: post #45

I would add debugging as a course. Maybe they should teach this but how to dive deep into figuring out how to learn the root cause of defects and various tools would have been enormously helpful for me. Perhaps this already exists

System programming courses force people to debug seriously. Sometimes people can't printf() stuffs.

Re: Computer science courses that don't exist, but should (2015)

#298

Post by markus_zhang »

ChicagoDave wrote: post #110

I could add so much to this page. - COBOL on punch cards - RPG II/III - PDP/Vax Shared Memory Modules - Hierarchical Data File Storage - Recursive Expression Evaluator - Batch Processing large datasets - Compressed dates and numbers So many of these teach you structural complexity that you’d never learn in today’s world.

Just curious what is special about PDP/Vax Shared Memory Modules? I know Win NT is basically the child of VMS and David Cutler worked on PDP before VAX, so maybe this is the reason?

Re: Computer science courses that don't exist, but should (2015)

#299

Post by markus_zhang »

corysama wrote: post #17
fred_is_fred wrote: post #2

The Classical Software Studies would be quite useful. Go write a game in 64kb of RAM in BASIC. It would really stretch your creativity and coding skills.

I’m e long thought the Gameboy Advance would make a great educational platform. Literally every aspect of the hardware is memory mapped. Just stuff values into structs at hard-coded addresses and stuff happens. No need for any OS or any API at all.

Yeah I think a CompArch class on Gameboy would be pretty interesting. But only as an introductory course because students need to learn other advanced concepts that Gameboy does not have.

Re: Computer science courses that don't exist, but should (2015)

#300

Post by tsumnia »

kj4211cash wrote: post #194
tsumnia wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately "ethics" can also be a sneaky way to insert "politics" into the curriculum.

I've never seen this. Is this some weird right wing talking point? I have seen a disconnect between what is covered in ethics classes and the types of scenarios students will encounter in the working world. My (one) ethics class was useless. But not political even with the redrawn ethical map of the Trump era.

Feel free to review my Ethics in AI lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBJRDxwbI9Y

This isn't a "Trump Era"/"Right Wing Talking Point" amigo, its the truth; also it's always been this way, listen to some punk rock. Is AI allowed to generate child pornography? Because that is currently being argued as protected by Free Speech in courts because no child was actually involved [1]. Sorry your ethics class was useless, I don't believe mine is.

[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/11/21/pennsy...

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