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How I got a CS degree with pen and paper and why I'm doing it again

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Re: How I got a CS degree with pen and paper and why I'm doing it again

#51

Post by randycupertino »

kaybe wrote: post #17
radicality wrote: post #6

Pretty much everyone in my university took notes on paper in CS classes. Most of it was just math which is much easier to note down with pen and paper (I tried tablets with a stylus but still prefer pen+paper).

The best version I've seen for image-heavy lectures is the lecturer writing with his pad on half-prepared slides, which have also been given to the students for print-out. It combines the advantages from pure slides with pure blackboard writing: - The student has enough time to think and not just write (has often been a problem when the professor is writing very fast and doing complicated stuff). - The student still…

... and then also record the lecture in case you missed anything else!

Re: How I got a CS degree with pen and paper and why I'm doing it again

#52

Post by randycupertino »

al2o3cr wrote: post #33

Better title: "How I decided that a practice that works better for me is clearly superior to others (and why I'm writing a blog to be smug about it)"

That could be the title for almost every blog post ever, though.

Re: How I got a CS degree with pen and paper and why I'm doing it again

#53

Post by munificent »

DawkinsGawd wrote: post #9

Disappointed. I thought the article was going to focus on why a computer isn't even necessary for a computer science degree. In other words - how a computer science degree is mostly just a degree in mathematics, and a lot of the coding that you do (algorithm work, obviously not a software engineering or programming intensive course) should be done with pencil. I have been seeing a lot of articles claiming that a barr…

> Nonsense. If I ran an AP computer science class we would never touch a computer.

That would be as about as engaging as a biology class without microscopes or a chemistry class without labs.

Re: How I got a CS degree with pen and paper and why I'm doing it again

#54

Post by Pinckney »

inanutshellus wrote: post #7

Misleading title - He took class notes using a notebook instead of a laptop. I dared to hope to find some absurd story about turning in his CS homework in hand-written C++...

As a TA, I've actually seen students do this in numerical analysis.

Re: How I got a CS degree with pen and paper and why I'm doing it again

#55

Post by poteeweet »

chrisseaton wrote: post #34
jjp wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but it's a little harder to prove that the algorithm you've described works.

But almost nobody proves that programs they write on computers work either. When was the last time you proved a program correct?

They didn't mean "prove" as in mathematically "prove" than an algorithm works, they meant it in mechanical terms (does it compile, does it run, does it past test inputs, etc.).

Re: How I got a CS degree with pen and paper and why I'm doing it again

#56

Post by make3 »

I'm in my last year in CS in a North American university and most people take pen and paper notes when they do take notes, and mostly only use their laptops to read previous slides again in presentations/ waste time on random internet bs. This article is making a big deal out of nothing out of the ordinary

Re: How I got a CS degree with pen and paper and why I'm doing it again

#57

Post by robertbenjamin »

chrisseaton wrote: post #34
jjp wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but it's a little harder to prove that the algorithm you've described works.

But almost nobody proves that programs they write on computers work either. When was the last time you proved a program correct?

You don't prove that it's "correct," as there is no such thing as a "correct" program. You prove that it works.

Re: How I got a CS degree with pen and paper and why I'm doing it again

#58

Post by LyndsySimon »

randycupertino wrote: post #48
LyndsySimon wrote: post #46

I took up penmanship as a hobby about a year ago, and now carry fountain pens and write down most everything I would have previously typed. It's actually a well-known thing in the fountain pen community that writing notes instead of typing them aides in comprehension.

That is awesome. I love that there is a fountain pen community!

There are thousands of us. Check out /r/fountainpens.

There's even an IRC channel listed in the sidebar. There are 25 of us online right now, and have been as many as 120 or so in the past. Fountain pens are more popular among IRC users than supervisord, based on channel participation :)

Re: How I got a CS degree with pen and paper and why I'm doing it again

#59

Post by xixi77 »

zura wrote: post #38
dsp1234 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Computer science is not really about computers -- and it's not about computers in the same sense that physics is not really about particle accelerators, and biology is not about microscopes and Petri dishes...and geometry isn't really about using surveying instruments. Now the reason that we think computer science is about computers is pretty much the same reason that the Egyptians thought geometry was about surveyin…

> Computer science is not really about computers He also added (prepended, to be precise) that it's not a science. :)

well the answer to that depends on whether in one's language "mathematics" is a "science" -- as I have (to no small surprise) discovered, in English it's quite often not, and there is no really agreed-upon definition of what science is...

Re: How I got a CS degree with pen and paper and why I'm doing it again

#60

Post by xixi77 »

poteeweet wrote: post #55
chrisseaton wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But almost nobody proves that programs they write on computers work either. When was the last time you proved a program correct?

They didn't mean "prove" as in mathematically "prove" than an algorithm works, they meant it in mechanical terms (does it compile, does it run, does it past test inputs, etc.).

That is not a proof by the CS standard though -- well, unless the job is defined as "write a program that processes these N test inputs known in advance", in which case a program that prints the expected hardcoded output in response to each of the expected inputs and otherwise returns an error would be a good implementation :)

I personally avoid using a word "proof" to mean anything other than a mathematical proof. It can be done with code, for sure, but as grandparent said, usually isn't.

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