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Why do so few people major in computer science?

danwang.co

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Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#461

Post by gaius »

aerovistae wrote: post #414
gaius wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not "computer science" any more than spotting constellations makes you an astrophysicist.

I don't really understand the point of this comment. Are you suggesting that those developers who lack a CS degree but can program effectively nonetheless don't really know "computer science," and therefore are weaker applicants? By extension, are you suggesting that most developer jobs have a need for applicants well-versed in Turing machines, automata, language parsing, trie data structures, and so on? You seem to…

The OP stated

you can learn computer science without needing a degree at all

Then proceeded to give an example of programming, which is not the same thing.

I agree with the assertion that one can be a successful programmer without a CS degree but let's call a spade a spade.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#462

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Clubber wrote: post #320
henrikschroder wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 I also started a CS program in '95, with practically no previous programming experience. (10 PRINT "HENRIK IS THE BEST", 20 GOTO 10 doesn't count) One thing our university did though was that the introduction course was in Scheme, which evened the playing field immensely, because most of the kids who could program were self-taught in Pascal or C, and where pretty stumped when confronted with a functional programmi…

>And the answer is a resounding no. Agreed. Apart from understanding logic, complex math is such a small part of development. I would say programming requires the overlap of knack for math and a pure creative interest like painting. That's much, much rarer. During the dot boom, there were plenty of CS grads, but after the dot bomb and the market dried up, people lost interest. Also, the pay and incentives aren't near…

>knack for math and a pure creative interest like painting //

You mean a pure creative interest like maths, surely ;0)>

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#464

Post by michaelt »

erikbye wrote: post #391
PretzelFisch wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Cousin smart kid had to come over at midnight because he had his first java assignment outside the ide. Couldn't compile because class path was not defined right on windows. Things like that scare people or pop their confidence.

That just sounds like the professor didn't teach them about Java classpath before telling them to use a CLI; or this kid didn't read the course materials.

It's not unusual, in education, to begin with something interesting* to provide motivation and a big-picture view before getting into details.

For example, if I wanted to teach a kid to use an Arduino, I'd start them off getting an LED to blink by telling them which wires to plug in where, and what code to type in. If they were good at that, maybe I'd have them make it fade in and out like a macbook light.

That way, when it comes time to learn about voltage and current and P-N junctions and bandgaps and PWM and cross-compiling and memory maps and bootloaders, they'll have real-world examples to relate it to.

The difficult part, of course, is even if I thoroughly test the instructions with a clean VM and hardware, the instructions can still fail - like if they've installed a different version previously and there's some sort of conflict.

*Or at least, interesting by the standards of the course

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#465

Post by lsadam0 »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #212
elsombrero wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The grief factor of learning to code is on a different scale to every other major. One missing semicolon will take your whole tower down, and you realise this in the first day of practical exercises >In fact, every exercise in CS has this problem. You add a new thing (eg inheritance), and it breaks. But not only that, it might be broken because of a banal little syntax problem. That can be said for math as well, swi…

The difference with math is, you can get partial credit.

In my low level CS classes we handed in a source code print out. The printout was graded, not execution of the program. Partial credit was given. Even in higher level CS, partial credit was given.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#466

Post by literallycancer »

dagw wrote: post #412
erikbye wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That just sounds like the professor didn't teach them about Java classpath before telling them to use a CLI; or this kid didn't read the course materials.

Sure, but if you have been playing around with environment variables in your OS since you where 8 years old the problem becomes a lot easier to troubleshoot, compared to someone who has never heard of environment variables.

Maybe, but the procedure is the same as for any other error you don't understand, copy paste the error message to a search engine and use the results to figure out what it means and how to fix it.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#467

Post by literallycancer »

dosgonlogs wrote: post #438
erikbye wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just saying a person thought to be "very smart" should be able to do CS101, easily; and I don't think the examples you mentioned are indication of extraordinary cognitive faculties. I taught myself near photo-realistic drawing, it's a mechanical skill--craftsmanship; had I continued to invest more time in perfecting the technique I would have got to what’s considered photo-realistic. My Spanish was decent after f…

something tells me your Spanish was never that great, and you never got that good at drawing. You reek of someone with a fragile ego. You also suck at writing clearly and concisely in English.

His English looks just fine to me.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#468

Post by lr4444lr »

lordnacho wrote: post #107

The grief factor of learning to code is on a different scale to every other major. One missing semicolon will take your whole tower down, and you realise this in the first day of practical exercises. Even if you are of the opinion that CS is math, and coding doesn't come into it, you will hit a coding wall early on. In fact, every exercise in CS has this problem. You add a new thing (eg inheritance), and it breaks. B…

Suddenly it makes sense to me why so many programs are switching over to Python for every course they can that is not domain-specific, like graphics or architecture.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#469

Post by lostboys67 »

throwaway7645 wrote: post #455
lostboys67 wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah that bridge that fell of its supports it was the contractors fault honest guv :-)

:)

I used to work for a top 5 consulting engineers and I had to reverse engineer some tests to help prove that the tests on the ground where we had a problem with a bridge where the fault of some one else.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#470

Post by literallycancer »

scaryspooky wrote: post #267
kbenson wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a software engineer is often about the merging of the discipline of CS and the art of programming. I think most software engineers are strong in one and get by in varying degrees in the other. The few that are strong in both end up being the "very good" programmers we all know or have heard about. For some, that semicolon is a nagging reminder of their mistakes. For others, it's a small detail they zoom past as…

You start saying 'software engineer' and end with programmer. Clarify your terms. There is a huge difference between willing to take on liability for your faults versus slinging code.

Software engineer is what you call yourself because programmer has negative connotations, while an engineer is the guy that built your house, your roads, your bridges and your airplanes - with "engineer" in your title, you are obviously more trustworthy.
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