Slashdot Mirror
Stroustrup Says C++ Education Needs To Improve
simoniker writes "Over at Dr. Dobb's, C++ creator Bjarne Stroustrup has given an in-depth interview dealing with, among other things, the upcoming C++0x programming standard, as well as his views on the past and future of C++. He comments in particular on some of the difficulties in educating people on C++: 'In the early days of C++, I worried a lot about "not being able to teach teachers fast enough." I had reason to worry because much of the obvious poor use of C++ can be traced to fundamental misunderstandings among educators. I obviously failed to articulate my ideals and principles sufficiently.' Stroustrup also notes, 'Given that the problems are not restricted to C++, I'm not alone in that. As far as I can see, every large programming community suffers, so the problem is one of scale.' We've discussed Stroustrup's views on C++ in the past."
Sometimes you need the more complicated parts of C++ - It would be a very bad idea to simplify c++ to the lowest common denominator.
For example, most people don't use the SSE stuff or even know about it. You can, for example, make a vector with 4 numbers in it and multiply it with another vector with 4 numbers in it. The result is that the four multiplications are done simulatanously.
Most people won't use this functionality and thus don't even need to learn it, but when you need an algorithm to run fast, it is essential.
Where are they teaching it actively again? I'm a student on computer science at the moment and all they teach in any depth is Java. The only reason I know c++ is my desire to learn it, despite the fact that various parts of my course have recently required a fairly in depth knowledge of c++.
My favorite lecturer quote, "Oh, I don't really do any coding at all".
Who need's speling and grammar?
> What the community needs right now is a Python distro with enough of a
> numerics and graphics package rolled in to do 90 percent of what is in
> Matlab.
Good idea. This is what both Sage and the Enthought Python Distribution are
shooting for.
> (Are the Python people still hashing out that Numerics/Numpy divide?
No that is done. And the lead developer of Numpy -- Travis Oliphant --
now gets to work full time on Python scientific computing, as an
employee of Enthought.
> Is there an engineering graphics library that is Numerics/Numpy compatible?
There is Matplotlib for
matlab like numpy graphics, and Chaco for more dynamic 2d graphics. MayaVi and Sage both provide powerful 3d graphics.