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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?

#621

Post by hx87 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #620
hx87 wrote: post #619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You simply declare a major/concentration and register for classes in the appropriate departments. If you get acceptable grades in those classes you are allowed to continue.

Isn't "declaring a major" almost synonymous with applying for a degree, presumably the declared major in this case would be "computer science", so requiring some programming knowledge for those declaring that major would be possible? In theory can one easily go to a USA Uni based on relatively unrelated abilities - lets say history and cooking? - and leave with a degree in Electronic Engineering? If there are no subj…

By the time you have declared a major, you will have taken the prerequisite courses already. Some programming knowledge is required, but that can be acquired while at university, not before.

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

#622

Post by csmark »

azakai wrote: post #238
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…

One of my professors actually made the opposite point: that in CS, the compiler will give you an error. You can fix it and move on to the next. While in math (he was a math prof), the paper doesn't object to your writing nonsense. If you have an error early on in your work, all the rest might be nonsense, and you only find out much later after a human grades it. tl;dr at least in CS you get immediate negative feedbac…

The real fun is when the compiler has no issues but things just are not working right. It's this type of situation "Stupid Computer Shit we all know" in these situations can ruffle-up classroom CS students. SCSWAK uses his skills to solve and try and add a bit or byte to the pile of shit.

Taking Calculus I in college most of the class had taken the course in high school. The most advanced math course in my HS had been Algebra II/advanced geometry. So they were ahead but it wasn't insurmountable, it was still math.

A classroom CS student trying to get an application to work asks a SCSWAK repository for assistance. One notepad app is suddenly 2 terminal windows with EMACKS? (at least it wasn't vim) on one and the other lots of lists go bye and quick commands are being entered while asking where the file is saved. "Nevermind, found it." The file contents show up but no editor was opened. Then there's all kinds of key combinations that no sense on the EMAKS just to move around! (add in more to the story).

One is still getting used to the operating system while the other has logged thousands of hours plugging away at the CLI. (Remember MUDS?) How the heck are the next 2.5-4 years going to be if the classroom CS couldn't follow anything he just saw?

Being around a bunch of SCSWAK who seem to naturally grasp everything can scare off students. IMHO the instructors for the low level CS courses should talk about this and get the classroom CS students to realize they can do just fine in the courses and SCSWAK are great resources if you can't find your answer on google. Also, the best way to actually learn something is to teach it. Thus, there's an opportunity for the SCSWAK group.

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

#624

Post by t482 »

1) Ageism is rampant and sucks. Doctor/Lawyer/Accountant can work until 70 CS till 45. Also no industry protection like the above.

2) If you studied prior to early 90s you were probably stuck on a shitty system. E.g. VAX writing in Turing (a version of Pascal). Horrible editor and very painful with many nights in the basement lab.

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

#625

Post by Baeocystin »

sqeaky wrote: post #542
rjbwork wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree with this. The mass produced handheld computers such as smartphones and tablets, which outnumber desktops and laptops in personal ownership worldwide, will absolutely not help the newer generations with learning how computers work. When I was a tween I was building my own desktop, installing drivers, trouble shooting driver issues, trawling log files, and even dabbled in a little bit of python here or…

I am so glad that there are enough people around to support a healthy PC components market. I build 1 or 2 per year and I haven't felt the supply dwindle yet. It is a shame that this is no longer the default option, but it can be done for people wanting to get an educational experience. I wonder how easy it would be to build a computer with a little kid?

My six-year-old nephew sat with rapt amazement as I assembled a standard PC in his living room while hanging out with the family. It was a very straightforward build- just motherboard, CPU & RAM, no addon cards, hard drive was already in the case. His mind boggled a little when he saw all the wires from the power supply, but as I pointed out how each group of wired to key into only certain ports, I could see the 'aha!' in his eyes.

(He also just about jumped for joy when he saw the color-changing LED fan I put on the case.)

Obviously at that age he doesn't quite have the manual dexterity to do the work himself, but I let him touch the RAM as I installed it so he could feel it click in to place, and showed him how to close & latch the CPU lever.

He appeared to really enjoy the experience. The next time one of the offices I work for retire some desktops, I may clean some up and partially disassemble them, so he can 'build' one himself. I really want to impress on him the fact that things that look complicated can be understood, if you just break down the task into bite-sized chunks.

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

#627

Post by usmeteora »

ajc-sorin wrote: post #617
usmeteora wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

to be fair, I've been coding for 8 years and have never coded in a Windows operating system outside of an IDE, and in general I don't use either, and have not since Computer Science 1. For a job, I had to get python working on Windows, and it took me a few days to get it in stalled correctly on Windows. Even after years of coding experience. The issue with Windows is it is designed to explicitly hide the backend func…

This is really valuable insight. Thank you for sharing this! If you don't mind me asking, did you apply this approach to specific programming languages? I'm curious which ones you tried to learned and ended up sticking with, and why.

What I stick with is based on what I'm developing and working on. The important part is to not be afraid to learn and try new things. I have not stuck with anything in particular but I stay strong in C/C++ because most of my development has related to efficient memory solutions.

On the other hand, Java is really nice for algorithm testing, and writing for classwork.

Javascript is obviously inescapable in some format if you are doing web development so I jumped right in and have learned it with Angular, Express, the MEAN stack in general etc.

It's better to have actual projects to work on. From there its easier to center around a framework, but I still prefer C/C++ but I am learning to appreciate Java the more I develop GUI applications and test more complex algorithms.

Recently I'm trying to test out an idea for an app, so the first thing I knew is I wanted it to be cross platform, so I've had to learn alot more javascript/ionic framework, etc. cordova and how phonegap is a version of that, and learn android and ios app dev to understand how phonegap links the two, and of course theres a movement to use react to dev natively, and Kotlin is coming in strong in the Android space with cross platform app dev, so there is alot you have to learn once you have an idea, and need to learn what helps you implement that idea/project, and you learn more that way instead of saying "I'm going to create something pretty with javascript". You will learn 20x more by making an entire project from design to implementation, and become familiar with how to navigate when and when not to use languages, frameworks technologies, you have to try stuff and fail alot and keep going and continue to make time to put thousands of hours of work into it.

You have to like it to do that, I really enjoy it.

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