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CMU Eliminates Object Oriented Programming For Freshman
fatherjoecode writes "According to this blog post from professor Robert Harper, the Carnegie Mellon University Computer Science department is removing the required study of O-O from the Freshman curriculum: 'Object-oriented programming is eliminated entirely from the introductory curriculum, because it is both anti-modular and anti-parallel by its very nature, and hence unsuitable for a modern CS curriculum.' It goes on to say that 'a proposed new course on object-oriented design methodology will be offered at the sophomore level for those students who wish to study this topic.'"
Focusing on the basics, and not on the tools of the trade, is very important at something that is not a "trade school", and CMU's computer science department certainly lives above the trade school level. (Just to contrast: when I was a freshman, the "trade school" argument was whether new students should be taught Fortran or Pascal ! Thank heaven I didn't devote my career to being a programmer.)
It seems to me that CMU's made the very obvious decision that today, OO is a tool for craftsmen, not for freshman computer scientists. And they probably are right. It's important to not confuse the tools of the trade, with the basics of the science, and this is especially true at the freshman level. For a good while (going back decades) OO was enough on the leading edge that its very existence was an academic and research subject but that hardly seems necessary today.
In the electrical engineering realm, the analogy is deciding that they're gonna teach electronics to freshmen, and not teach them whatever the latest-and-greatest-VLSI-design-software tool is. And that's a fine decision too. I saw a lot of formerly good EE programs in the 80's and 90's become totally dominated and trashed by whatever the latest VLSI toolset was.
Why are computer scientists even learning programming? When did this happen? Programming sounds like one of those get-your-hands-dirty jobs in flyover territory, where you would show a lot of ass crack on the job and live in a trailer park. Educated people don't do that.
They need to be able to program for the same reasons management and engineers need to spend some time on the assembly line: so they can learn how things actually work. There's often a wide chasm between "on paper" and "in practice" and ideas need to be able to traverse it.
Agreed ... but aren't most modern OS's OO based? In most cases students need OO programming in order to become employable. OO certainly isn't the holly grail of computing but it is entrenched in business and needs to be taught just like COBOL was all those years ago (when I had to learn it even though it was like writing a book every time I wanted to write a small program).
And how is this an argument for including in the introductory, freshman curriculum? I put forward the possibility that some topics may be more appropriate to be taught to students only after they've learned the basics.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
I outright laugh at people in an Interview when they ask me if I'll write OO code.
Good advice for those seeking work.
If you can't read straight up C code and understand what the fuck is going on, stop calling yourself a programmer.
They used to say that about assembly. Try writing a modern game or GUI in assembly. You might well be able to do it, but by the time your'e done I'll have finished several projects and be moving on to the next one.
If you can't code directly for the hardware you're interfacing with, stop calling yourself a programmer.
Right. Abstraction has no place in computer science education or in programming. As a matter of fact, if you're using anything other than a magnetized needle to right to your hard drive, quit calling yourself a computer user.
If you depend on .NET, any library, framework, or something written by someone else, you're not a programmer. You're a script kiddy.
Right. Code reuse is so lame. Anything that reducing development time and improves efficiency has no place in computer science. Everything should be written directly in binary on a computer you, the programmer, built from latches, switches, and flip-flops. Otherwise, you're just a bum.
OO should never be taught lest we end up with a generation of useless tools who think they're "programmers" that can't actually accomplish fuck all
Right. After all, every program written using OO is useless and nonfunctional. Except for the hundreds of thousands of programs that work just fine.
Go back to your garage with your unflinching dedication to The Old Ways and leave the rest of us to be productive.