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On Fri, 20 Apr 2012, tom wrote:
Make it compulsory for everyone who wants a Computer Programming degree to learn Knuth off by heart so we dont spend the next 50 years arguing over who's cocked up version of something polished shiny in 1976 is best. And then go and read the GCC source code cos if it exists in computing it will be in there somewhere.
Hm. I have clients who employ "developers" some of whom are right out of school. Bright kids can code in php/perl/python, etc., but no "comp sci" behind them. I've had to re-educate one on the art of sorting (He was using a bubble sort )-: and similarly for some database handling. His code was adequate, but "naive".
I fear the current generation of "apps developers" who've not gone to uny is going to suffer this same fate.
Sadly though, hardly anything in computing in "new" anymore. I mean really new - because it's all been done by Knuth, Dijkstra, Hoare, et al. over the past 60 years... E.g. My BASIC interpreter uses Dijkstras shunting yard algorithm for expression evaluation - published the year before I was born...
Gordon -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq