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Learn To Code, It's More Important Than English as a Second Language, Says Apple CEO (cnbc.com)

Apple CEO Tim Cook says it is more important to learn how to code than it is to learn English as a second language. From a report: The tech executive made the remarks to French outlet Konbini while in the country for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has called for tech companies to pay higher taxes in Europe. "If I were a French student and I were 10 years old, I think it would be more important for me to learn coding than English. I'm not telling people not to learn English in some form -- but I think you understand what I am saying is that this is a language that you can [use to] express yourself to 7 billion people in the world," Cook tells Konbini. "I think that coding should be required in every public school in the world. [...] It's the language that everyone needs, and not just for the computer scientists. It's for all of us."

296 comments

  1. Fully agree by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Funny
    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
    1. Re:Fully agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hilarious

    2. Re:Fully agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rapira is Russian Pascal.

    3. Re: Fully agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it's Mexican douchebag

    4. Re: Fully agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Comrade Cook*

      FTFY

    5. Re: Fully agree by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There is nothing funny about this; it is 100% insightful. Cool should stick to what he understands. The minute people start spouting this "everyone should know how to code" bullshit, or start talking about computer languages as options to human ones, they immediately identify themselves who don't have the slightest clue about software.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    6. Re: Fully agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is nothing more than bait.
      Cool is baiting desperate foreigners to come here and not even bother learning English.
      Good way to prevent them from ever being paid much.
      It also shows how desperate Cook is to get rid of any American staff. Traitor probably wants to jump ship ASAP.

    7. Re: Fully agree by rtb61 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sorry but Tim Cook is living in a bubble, the majority of people are totally unfit to code. From my own experiences math geeks tend to do the best at it, that peculiar genetic mind set seems to really suit it. There are other really smart people, really smart and they are still crap and coding. All sorts of problems crop up. For me, presented a problem, all sorts of coding solutions would pop up, and unfortunately I would try to implement all of them at the same time, each part works on it's own but the combination, what a mess and it takes forever to dig out because each bit works, fix it sure but most certainly not productively or efficiently.

      By far the bulk of the population will never ever be able to code productively, no matter how hard you try to force it.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    8. Re: Fully agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's because math is a language for describing and generalizing patterns. Of you've really learned how to work with numbers and those notations, the process of creating and working with algorithms is a relatively natural progression.

      One of the reasons why there aren't more is primarily because it isn't taught properly. That results in people being turned off before they get a taste of the good stuff.

    9. Re: Fully agree by Tranzistors · · Score: 2, Insightful

      the majority of people are totally unfit to code.

      I'm sure this view is based on rigorous scientific studies and you have submitted a meta-analysis paper in Nature. Perhaps you would share with us the scientific articles that have studied the programming abilities of wide range of populations?

      If there is no scientific backing of what you said, what you said is hardly credible. You use weasel words all over the place: “unfit to code”, “peculiar genetic mind set”, “really smart people”, “crap at coding”, “code productively”. History is littered with dubious attempts to claim that certain groups of people “just can't do a particular thing”, like “Women are not capable of logical reasoning” or “Negroes are mentally handicapped”. To me, your reasoning looks somewhat like this:

      I have been in USA and Canada, and from my experience, Canadians are just better at speaking French. Sure, some Canadians are just hopless at French, but I have hardly met any American who could make a coherent statement in French. Therefore there is no point in teaching French to Americans, since they are just not good at it.

      Sure, it makes sense to discuss if programming languages are useful to learn, like any other foreign language, but you should not outright dismiss most of people, especially without evidence.

    10. Re: Fully agree by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There isn't a professional with any significant amount of experience in the field who doesn't know that many, many people are not able to competently do our job, because we have worked with many of them. You wouldn't complain if we said not everyone can be a doctor or a physicist, but coding? Anyone can do that! It's easy. The fact you think we need studies to show that such an idea is ludicrous makes you one of the people unqualified for the job.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    11. Re: Fully agree by Mordaximus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sorry but Tim Cook is living in a bubble, the majority of people are totally unfit to code.

      The majority of people are unfit to write professionally. Does this mean they shouldn't learn a language? I don't think the intent is that everyone become a professional programmer. But gaining some knowledge into how, and why a computer works would certainly be valuable.

      That doesn't even address people coding as a hobby, or out of self interests (Maybe writing a quick python script to solve a particular one-off problem.

    12. Re: Fully agree by Tranzistors · · Score: 1

      You wouldn't complain if we said not everyone can be a doctor or a physicist, but coding? Anyone can do that! It's easy.

      I did not claim that it is easy. But I haven't heard anyone making claims that a person must have a special kind of personality to be a doctor or a physicist. Although I have heard that being a psychopath helps doctors, but even that skill can be learned.

      But if you want to talk about “coding is easy”, sometimes it is. Just look at spreadsheets. Imagine it as a programming language, where you have several two dimensional pointer arrays with always-on visual debugger. Where sum(A1:A10) is a neater way to say std::accumulate(A1,A10,*A11). The some IDEs (Excel, Calc) have IntelliSense. This is programming. Yes, it's horrid, not debugable, no hope for version control, painfully slow, bloated and whatnot, but it IS programming. And people do it. Now tell me with a straight face that you need to be a “math geek” to use Excel.

    13. Re: Fully agree by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      Again, you have missed the mark completely. Even if you were right to equate basic spreadsheet use to programming I assure you that the world has a very high population of people who cannot grasp the intricacies of spreadsheets. In fact I find it hard to believe that YOU can tell ME that you don't know many such people without being completely disingenuous.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    14. Re: Fully agree by Tranzistors · · Score: 2

      Again, you have missed the mark completely

      Perhaps. I'll try to make my case clearer.

      The point Tim Cook is making is that in school teaching coding has more benefits than teaching English as a second language. He does not claim that students should avoid English. In fact, [technical] English will be learned while learning coding.

      School curriculum is filled with stuff that will not be useful to everyone. Did you have physics and chemistry in school? Do you use it now in any capacity? These subjects are included in schools to either prepare future specialists in STEM fields or providing basic insight on how the “real world” works. Programming is both useful for future carriers and for understanding the “real world”.

      Furthermore, programming skills are useful for whatever field the student goes into. Either making models in physics or economy, creating art or managing office supplies in spreadsheets. In my university physicists, biologists and mathematicians are taught programming (I haven't looked into other fields), and for a good reason. To make matters worse, those people will program, whether you or they like it or not. If they will have to code, better teach them to do it in a less awful manner.

      I assure you that the world has a very high population of people who cannot grasp the intricacies of spreadsheets.

      I believe that there are many, who do not grasp the intricacies of spreadsheets, but it is courageous to say that they cannot. Ask yourself, how many hours does a student have to spend learning mathematics (starting from basic arithmetic) until they can understand function derivatives? Now, how many hours are spent teaching spreadsheets? Anyway, to show that a very high population of people who cannot grasp the intricacies of spreadsheets you would have to a) get rid of the weasel words, b) get a random sample of people, c) teach them spreadsheets with the state of the art teaching methodologies, d) motivate them to want to learn. Unless I see a study that looks remotely like this, I will not believe any claims about what people can't do.

    15. Re: Fully agree by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      I only read a very small section of your drivel and the answer is that the world is full of people who will never understand function derivatives no matter how hard they try, which isn't the same at all as you pretending not to be able to grasp this obvious fact.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    16. Re: Fully agree by cstacy · · Score: 2

      But gaining some knowledge into how, and why a computer works would certainly be valuable.

      Absolutely. But that's not the same as "learning to code", and isn't what Cook was advocating.

    17. Re:Fully agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This has long been an issue. You must know English to know to program. Mr Cook just doesn't want to sound English-elitist and actually say it.........

    18. Re: Fully agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how many hours are spent teaching spreadsheets

      Tabular data, which is all spreadsheet are, is pervasive from the time you start reading a a child.

    19. Re: Fully agree by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      I think they are phrasing it wrong. There is value in knowing how a computer thinks, but not necessarily in everyone coding.

    20. Re: Fully agree by Tranzistors · · Score: 1

      answer is that the world is full of people who will never understand function derivatives no matter how hard they try

      This statement is nearly meaningless. Sure, people with severe learning disabilities might not be able to, and maybe by your understanding “world is full of them”, in which case you may be right. Your claims are at best truthiness.

    21. Re: Fully agree by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 0

      I assume when you say "people with severe learning disabilities" you include yourself.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    22. Re: Fully agree by Graydyn+Young · · Score: 1

      the majority of people are totally unfit to code

      Ya, all the people that didn't start learning to code when they were young and malleable.

    23. Re: Fully agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everything we do involves algorithms, but we don't formulate them and compile them on a computer which isn't our brain. Example, retrieve bread bag, open bread bag, pop 2 pieces from stack into slice array[2], add jam to slice[0], add peanut butter to slice[1], concatenate slice[0],slice[1]...etc.

    24. Re: Fully agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think coding is more of a linguist thing than a mathematical thing. I'm crap at math, but I love languages, and therefore I love to code.

      Are you bitter that you yourself cannot grasp code?

    25. Re: Fully agree by BorgDrone · · Score: 1

      programming skills are useful for whatever field the student goes into. Either making models in physics or economy, creating art or managing office supplies in spreadsheets.

      What about chicken catchers, how is programming useful to them ? And in case you wonder what a chicken catcher does, it's someone who catches chickens for a living (basically, their job is to drive to a different farm each day, go into a barn full of chickens and put them in cages for transport to a butcher). I know a guy who does that, I'd love to see you teach him programming. Note that this guy is not mentally handicapped by any definition; let's just say he's not very good at abstract thinking.

      What about the people who work in the bread factory around the corner from where I live. There are guys who've been working there for 30+ years and all they do is prepare shipments of bread for supermarkets. Cart 1 for supermarket A, 20 loafs of white bread, 30 of full grain, etc. on to Cart 2, 15 loafs of ... you get the idea. What use is programming to them ?

      Hell, I know people who actually have a BsC from a 4 year CS program who can't code to save their lives. And these are college educated people who actually had programming courses as part of their BsC. They could kind-of do the assignments in the course but only as long as the assignments looked similar enough to the material studied in class. They didn't actually understand what was going on, they were merely monkeys who knew how to repeat a trick. Most of them went on to some 2 year follow-up management program.

      Hell, I've interviewed job applicants with supposedly 10 years of programming experience who I wouldn't let near a compiler.

    26. Re: Fully agree by Tranzistors · · Score: 1

      What about chicken catchers, how is programming useful to them ? [...]

      This is why I didn't say that programming is useful for every kind of job, but for fields “fields”. In this case, is programming useful for farming? I'm not sure how modern animal husbandry works exactly, but automation in agriculture is a big deal and programming skills can give an edge. But to address your point head on — yes, not every job needs programming skills, but in this case I don't see how anything past the fourth grade could be of use.

      Hell, I know people who actually have a BsC from a 4 year CS program who can't code to save their lives.

      I agree that such people exist, but just because they have been taught programming and it failed doesn't meant that they can't be successfully taught programming. If we are trading anecdotes, I have seen several examples of people who at school were rubbish at mathematics and physics for years. But after changing teachers or getting tutors they just suddenly got decent at it. I'm not sure why I haven't seen this phenomena in adults. My guess is that they either find jobs where they don't have to do the things they don't know, or are too busy with real life to be able to say “Ok, I know nothing, lets spend a year to learn this thing properly”. But again, these are just guesses and until I see actual studies, I will not believe the “most people just can't learn coding” speculation.

    27. Re: Fully agree by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Now imagine the difference in scope and size between your example and a real-world program being similar to the difference between summing a restaurant bill and multivariate calculus. There are *some* ways of making the progression easier to grasp, such as reading any edition of How to Design Programs and working through it, but it will most likely never be as trivial (until computers start programming themselves at least).

      Plus there's the question of demand and supply. Programming is an example of an activity where demand seems to be outstripping supply, so you get incompetent applicants very naturally. (And making it easier for people, in the spreadsheet-like way, ironically increases the demand for brainiacs like Alan Kay and his merry men at VPRI that you say we don't need.) And I'd be surprised if you didn't actually need a moderately special kind of person for any of the three jobs outlined anyway. But we don't seem to need that many physicists. We *may* be having similar problems with medical researchers, though, judging from the reproducibility problems of recent academic output.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    28. Re: Fully agree by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      It may be a good idea for more people to try, simply based on the two premises that some people who'd prove competent could be missed otherwise, and that we're in a need of finding them. But admittedly it's hopeless to expect everyone to succeed.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    29. Re: Fully agree by KingBenny · · Score: 1

      Mh well, its not just that ... most self proclaimed coders think code is syntax as far as i can observe in the limited world im stuck in for a while now while to code is more like knowing the basics and how they converge, interact and collide, right? variable / constant / statement / iteration / condition / jump most complex would be derived from that, a subroutine is still a jump an object is a subroutine with variables passed on etc ... i have no idea what the 2017 terminology is but im quite sure that iThing XXIIV runs the same von neumann logic as my old c64, and thats coding, opcodes is syntax, lower level is syntax, a framework ? BLASPHEMY but i would like to contradict mister cook, see, i just been chatting with someone i recently got in touch with from Taiwan ... now i'm native flemish, she's native chinese, thats mandarin, with the tones and all say we both were "coders" (as if its an identity, right) if we knew the logic and how it all connects, i still would be speaking chinese to her speaking flemish to me (meaning if you speak english it would be chinese to all) ... if i spoke javascript and she speaks python then i still don't see how we can work on one single routine together but we both speak and understand english and thats where it starts, so, mister Cooke i'm afraid i'll have to disagree

      --
      Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
  2. Great idea! by SeaFox · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That will improve communication in international development teams -- not having a common language to speak to each other in. I'm sure that will have no impact on the final product.

    1. Re:Great idea! by ravenshrike · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Just look at the success the Germans and French had with Airbus.

    2. Re:Great idea! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just look at the success the Germans and French had with Airbus.

      And at that: the Germans and the French were able to communicate with each other... in English.

    3. Re:Great idea! by markdavis · · Score: 1

      >"Just look at the success the Germans and French had with Airbus."

      Which is due primarily to knowing English.

    4. Re:Great idea! by avandesande · · Score: 1

      Not to mention the enormous amounts of information that is available to programmers in ENGLISH.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    5. Re: Great idea! by TimMD909 · · Score: 1

      Obviously. The code documents itself, so who needs comments?

    6. Re:Great idea! by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      "Primarily"? Really, that's the most important thing in their success? Not their engineering, quality, etc?

    7. Re:Great idea! by markdavis · · Score: 1

      >"Primarily"? Really, that's the most important thing in their success? Not their engineering, quality, etc?

      Okay, "secondarily" :)

  3. Ever get stuck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...with code developed by a non-English speaker? Ugly.

    1. Re:Ever get stuck by Tablizer · · Score: 2

      ...with code developed by a non-English speaker? Ugly.

      Oh, I mistook it for Perl ;-)

      Tech CEO's just want cheap labor for their sector. They don't care about more general downsides of poor English to a other areas of a person's life. For example, when a coder gets older and is forced out of coding due to agism or RSI, as often happens, lack of English could greatly limit Plan B. It can also make everyday life difficult outside of work.

      On a related note, the NRA says everyone should own and learn about guns. Surprise!

    2. Re:Ever get stuck by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Oh, I mistook it for Perl ;-)

      This Perl or this Perl?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:Ever get stuck by thogard · · Score: 1

      Perligata is an interesting language in that it can change the way you think about coding which means it is worth looking at.

      The first issue is that it uses Latin suffexes to determine L-values and R-values. "last=next" in most languages would become "lasto da nextum" or "da nextum lasto". That can get interesting in cases where there are more than one L-vaules in a statement and is related to some of the things that can be done in the inner statement in a C for loop.

      The naming of some of the functions are somewhat entertaining. x=int(y*abs(sine(z))) would be something like "xo da decolla yum multiplica priva oppone zum." translated "lvalue X is lopped off y times striped from the oppose of z"

      "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing." --Alan Perlis

    4. Re:Ever get stuck by rossz · · Score: 1

      On a related note, the NRA says everyone should own and learn about guns. Surprise!

      Which is why I got my firearms teacher certification recently. Everyone should learn about firearms for safety's sake. Not everyone should own one.

      I'm on the older end of the geek scale and I couldn't change my job if I wanted because of the rampant age-ism in Silicon Valley. I'm a senior level Linux system administrator, but no one is interested after they see me in person and realize I'm in my fifties.

      --
      -- Will program for bandwidth
    5. Re:Ever get stuck by cstacy · · Score: 1

      On a related note, the NRA says everyone should own and learn about guns. Surprise!

      Actually, they don't say that everyone should own guns.

      They say everyone has the right to own guns, and they do say everyone should learn something about guns, so that children know not to touch them without appropriate supervision, and that adults know how to avoid shooting their own kneecaps and such. But everyone should own a gun? No, there are definitely people for whom it is advisable not to own a gun.

    6. Re:Ever get stuck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On a related note, the NRA says everyone should own and learn about guns. Surprise!

      Actually, they don't say that everyone should own guns.

      +

      Exactly; e.g. crazy white people should, blacks shouldn't.

  4. So wrong by JohnFen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The idea that everybody needs to learn to code is ridiculous. It's like saying that everybody needs to learn how to build a house, or how to build a car, etc.

    Just like learning basic carpentry or basic auto repair is a useful life skill, so are basic computer skills. But if programming isn't your thing, then learning it isn't going to do you a lot of good in your life.

    1. Re:So wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if "everybody" can "code", then "everybody" is a prospect to put some piece of shit app in their fucking app store.

      an app isn't going to solve any of the world's problems. but ya know, if "everybody" was able to communicate effectively with "everybody else" in the world........ wow. the possibilities are endless. and most of them good, even.

    2. Re:So wrong by techdolphin · · Score: 2

      I agree. When cars came out people were saying everybody will need to learn how to repair cars. Sure, people will need to know how to use a computer. I have worked as a programmer, and I have three children. Trying to teach them to code would be a waste of time and effort. What we need to teach everyone is critical thinking. Coding is not even on the list.

    3. Re:So wrong by thebullshitpatrol · · Score: 1

      You don't understand, EVERYONE should be writing apps for our app machines.

    4. Re: So wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's beyond tidiculous, for too many reasons to list. Just when I start to think I couldn't possibly dislike Cook more than I do, he goes and opens his mouth again.

    5. Re:So wrong by imgod2u · · Score: 1

      At some point, the same was said about reading and writing. Or basic math skills. Or basic understanding of physics.

      Not everyone needs to learn the Linux kernel or even how to write an app in Swift/ObjectiveC.

      But knowing how to understand and even communicate using pseudo-code is a much more precise, concise and robust way of communicating for many many many many things people encounter in life.

      If all people were taught the basics of understanding if-statements, loops, look-up-tables, functions, procedural steps, synchronization, etc. then everything from instruction manuals, legal regulations, tax codes, corporate policy, accounting, project management, business agreements etc. etc. could be communicated with much less ambiguity and far fewer need for 50+ conference calls.

      That's an overall gain in efficiency and productivity.

    6. Re:So wrong by oldgraybeard · · Score: 2

      Plumbing ;) lol lets see them outsource that to be done remotely! Although some may dream of being remote while doing it ;) lol

    7. Re:So wrong by JohnFen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What you're arguing for is teaching algorithmics, and I agree. But that's different from teaching programming (programming, along with a lot of other fields, is built on top of algorithmics).

      My kids have been out of school for a while now, so things may have changed, but algorithmics used to be taught as part of the standard curriculum in both math and science classes. They didn't call it that, but that's what it was.

    8. Re: So wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Coding can hardly be compared to reading, writing, or math. Coding is a very specific skill that has little use outside of its area, the others are very broadly applicable. Talk about a false equivalency and weak-ass argument. Are you Tim Cook, by any chance?

    9. Re:So wrong by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 2

      ^^^ This.

      Vocational schools are highly under-rated. Not everyone has an interest or ability in STEM or even any of the other standard 4-year educational paths, and forcing them into it is what produces mediocrity. There's nothing wrong with being an electrician making $60 and up, and I know plumbers that are well into the lower six figures without much effort, and good for them because I don't care to wade around knee-deep in other people's shit so I will gladly pay someone else to do it.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    10. Re:So wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The idea that everybody needs to learn to code is ridiculous. It's like saying that everybody needs to learn how to build a house, or how to build a car, etc.

      Everyone that lives in a house should know enough about how its plumbing/electricity/building materials work to do basic maintenance and understand when and what they need a contractor to do for them. Everyone that owns a car should know enough about how it works to do basic maintenance and understand when and what they need a mechanic to do for them. Everyone that owns a computer should know enough about how it works to do basic maintenance and understand when and what they need a programmer to do for them.

      Somehow the last of those three is treated on this site as absurd.

    11. Re:So wrong by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      Somehow the last of those three is treated on this site as absurd.

      Why do you say that, when I said the same thing in the comment you're replying to?

    12. Re:So wrong by next_ghost · · Score: 1

      There is a good reason why everybody should have some basic coding skills (just like everybody learns some basic math, history, geography, science, etc. at school): A lot of businesses and government agencies have problems that can be easily solved by software. Coding illiterate managers are the single biggest obstacle to solving those problems properly for two reasons: 1) They either can't even imagine the problem being solved by software in the first place, or 2) if they can, they'll end up buying some overpriced bullshit that doesn't actually solve their problem.

    13. Re:So wrong by imgod2u · · Score: 1

      And how do you teach algorithmics? More importantly, do current curriculum that teach what you would assume to be "algorithmics" teach the necessary mechanisms to communicate using it? Because that's what programming (even if you call it "algorithmics using pseudo-code" or some such) teaches primarily. At least, introductory programming courses.

      You can make it less about the machine if you want and more of a language and communications class. But having the machine makes it more fun and interactive as you have a built-in correctness checker for your algorithms/logistics.

      Currently, each discipline (be it physics, math, business, medicine or law) has some sort of ad-hoc, hodge-podge short-hand for logistics that nobody uses after they're done with school (or the specific professor's course).

      Teaching some kind of universal short-hand (or pseudo-code, if you will) at least in each linguistic demographic would help significantly in speeding up and clarifying communications in the professional (and not-so-professional) world.

      You don't need to know the C library or the Java API. But being able to communicate through step-by-step instructions with loops, conditionals, functions and synchronization -- and having everyone know how to readily do that instead of using english -- would be a huge leap for humanity.

      Your next email regarding package handling procedure could involve 20 lines of pseudo-code that details every possible contingency instead of some vague 20-page instruction manual.

    14. Re:So wrong by imgod2u · · Score: 1

      While not remote, one of the demo ideas for hololens was to allow a master plumber to guide people remotely to do the job. Either the homeowner themselves or a novice whose time costs 1/10th the master plumber's.

    15. Re:So wrong by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      No, it's closer to saying everyone needs to learn to type.

      I'm a magician to my fellow Mechanical engineers because I know some Regex. Nothing fancy. No massive libraries just a simple tool to change some data. In the future if you don't have a minimum level of competency in typ^H^H^H programming of some sort you'll be near useless.

      How many engineers these days will get hired saying they can't type? It'll be that way in 20 years if not sooner.

    16. Re:So wrong by stabiesoft · · Score: 1

      Will not work. I recently replaced the seals in my polaris booster pump. I watched a couple utubs. They were helpful up until the bolts were frozen on the case, the old seal was a mf to get out, the new seal did not drop in like they showed either. All in all the utube was like 4 minutes long and looked trivial. I spent 4 hours doing it. I've found this to be true of most of the plumbing stuff I've done. In theory it is easy, but having the prior experience to know just how to hit the old seal to dislodge or how to break away a bolt takes practice.

    17. Re:So wrong by imgod2u · · Score: 1

      The demo doesn't involve pre-recorded instructions. You literally have a plumber sitting in his office with a hololens guiding some guy at the house. Saves commute time and he can multiplex between multiple houses when there's downtime.

    18. Re:So wrong by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      do current curriculum that teach what you would assume to be "algorithmics" teach the necessary mechanisms to communicate using it?

      I don't know if they currently teach it at all. My experience with the school system is about 15 years out (and that was as the parent to schoolchildren, not sitting in the classroom myself), and I don't know what changes have been made.

      But yes, in the "old days" they certainly taught how to communicate it. It would be useless if they didn't. Conceptually, this is done with "pseudocode" (meaning high-level abstraction that isn't picky about syntax).

      The exact notation varies from field to field, of course. It makes sense that it does, as the needs of different fields are, errr, different. Take mathematics, for example -- the "pseudocode" used in mathematics can express instructions in a single line that would take 20 if expressed as programming-like pseudocode.

      I'm with you conceptually. Where I am skeptical is that I don't think there's a single notation that is simple and clear for everybody, or that can express the concepts of every field in a simple and clear manner.

    19. Re:So wrong by ITRambo · · Score: 1

      The more people that learn to code the less Apple, and other companies, will need to pay for software development, due to someone always willing to work for less money than the next person.

    20. Re:So wrong by Freischutz · · Score: 1

      The idea that everybody needs to learn to code is ridiculous. It's like saying that everybody needs to learn how to build a house, or how to build a car, etc.

      Just like learning basic carpentry or basic auto repair is a useful life skill, so are basic computer skills. But if programming isn't your thing, then learning it isn't going to do you a lot of good in your life.

      That maybe true but he still has a point. People who think they can pull off something like Brexit or MAGA, seal their borders, isolate themselves from the outside world and that this will bring a golden flood of high paying jobs for unskilled labour are deluding themselves even if it is an idea that is extremely to sell. Getting a higher level education is essential, building up your national education system is essential to national success in 21st century and is more important that practically anything else a nation can do. Trying to fix national finances by making extensive cuts in the education system like the British are doing, thus wrecking it (as the US is doing for different reasons, i.e. to pander to religious nut-bags and paddlers of predatory student loans) is a road that leads to nowhere.

    21. Re:So wrong by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      You're implying that people would communicate and even *think* in a structured and logical fashion? Good luck with that.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    22. Re:So wrong by HatofPig · · Score: 1

      Not everyone needs to be a mechanic, but it's good to know one. When auto manufacturers insist that cars only be serviced by dealer-authorized mechanics, there must be a adequately-sized population of people to rebel. It's kind of like herd immunity. Same thing with Free software. Enough people out there should be programmers, using GNU/Linux, etc. to keep alive the possibility for total computer ownership by end-owners. Knowing how to code, or being aware that it's a popular form of knowledge can deliver peace of mind for people terrified by a world full of digital electronics.

      --
      Silicon & Charybdis McLuhan Kildall Papert Kay
    23. Re:So wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is a huge difference between learning to hammer and saw, and being able to build a house. There is a huge difference between learning proper English, and learning to write a complex series of novels. What are "basic computer skills?" Does that include basic coding? I think it should, but glad it doesn't. Keeping the people ignorant is the best way to keep them controlled. Most people have no concept of programming in the slightest. They make for cheap labor.

    24. Re:So wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if everyone writes apps, then who will write the Luddite software? APPS!

    25. Re:So wrong by exomondo · · Score: 1

      I don't know if they currently teach it at all.

      Well it makes sense that a logical way to do it would be through practical application. i.e. write code that you can execute.

      Where I am skeptical is that I don't think there's a single notation that is simple and clear for everybody, or that can express the concepts of every field in a simple and clear manner.

      I think it's pretty clear that there isn't one, that's why we have so many programming languages but we don't eschew say MATLAB or Mathematica in education just because it isn't all things to all people in all fields.

      You can argue it's all too hard if you want but in the end if they do something and it provides at least some value then that's good even if it isn't the non-existent (or undiscovered) perfect solution.

    26. Re:So wrong by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

      What we need to teach everyone is critical thinking. Coding is not even on the list.

      The point that this clown is making is that he wants mindless code monkeys, a dime a dozen. Code monkeys do not need any critical thinking capabilities; in fact, they are better without them.

    27. Re: So wrong by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      Do you want to know why the last one soundo absurd. Because you have adadvanced a false equivalence. House maintenance == Install, configure and remove apps, etc. Software Development == House *design*

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    28. Re:So wrong by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

      What is the acceptable minimum? Should people who use computers be required to know how to program them? Without specifics, you are just stating the obvious.

    29. Re:So wrong by currently_awake · · Score: 1

      The people saying this are people who would benefit from programmer pay going down. Supply and demand works.

    30. Re:So wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suppose so, but since computers are going to be doing all the simple useful life skills for us in a few decades, might as well learn, right?

    31. Re:So wrong by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      99% of vocational schools are shit. You get a better education cheaper by just going to community college. This is doubly or triply true when it comes to automotive, but as a general rule it is unassailable.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    32. Re:So wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought you had to hit the baby seals, not the old ones.

    33. Re:So wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And how do you teach algorithmics? More importantly, do current curriculum that teach what you would assume to be "algorithmics" teach the necessary mechanisms to communicate using it? Because that's what programming (even if you call it "algorithmics using pseudo-code" or some such) teaches primarily. At least, introductory programming courses.

      That's what you are supposed to learn in CS. It is not about programming but rather concept and algorithms. Programming is just a way to express your understanding which can be done in any computer languages. Also pseudo code is NOT an algorithm but rather a way to express understanding using block-like format instead of a real computer language.

      What people (kids) should learn is why a process works instead of digging too deep into algorithm or too superficial as a programming language. Understanding why a process works does not need to know what involved because the knowledge can be applied to different technology later if they want to learn more. In other words, the understanding does not need to know how it works (algorithms) or what resources are used along the process (programming). Sadly, it seems that those who have the authority to make a decision for kid education have no idea and can't distinguish these.

    34. Re:So wrong by brian3201 · · Score: 1

      There is a distinction between 'knowing how to code' and 'coding for a living'. To far too many people, computers are basically modern magic. IT powers the whole infrastructure of modern society, so having a basic understanding of the principles involved would benefit everyone. CS should be on an equal footing with the other sciences in schools for this reason and the fact that it is a great tutor for problem solving and logical thinking.

    35. Re:So wrong by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      The demo doesn't involve pre-recorded instructions. You literally have a plumber sitting in his office with a hololens guiding some guy at the house. Saves commute time and he can multiplex between multiple houses when there's downtime.

      Which is another way of saying he can charge his time out several times over. I see the attraction if you're a plumber and need another fucking gold plated Rolls Royce for your wife to match your own.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    36. Re:So wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If all people were taught the basics of understanding if-statements, loops, look-up-tables, functions, procedural steps, synchronization, etc.

      You mean all of that stuff that I learned when I was 6 when I looked at a computer for the first time and thought "how would I do such a thing?". I didn't even know what a computer was before that moment. The person there told me it was like a computer that you could tell it to do stuff. It was a simple thought experiment and figured it out on my own. Within a few minutes, I was already thinking about how I would connect the video out of a computer to the keyboard of another so they could communicate, then thinking about what kinds of things a computer would want to communicate, and how to keep those two computers in sync with each other, and trying to minimize the overhead of keeping them in sync. I mean.. really.. Computers are intuitive to work with.

      By the time I was 8, I finally got a computer and blasted through an ASM programming book. It was light reading because I had already understood everything in the book because it was obvious to me back when I was 6 and thought "how would I do that?". The answer I created in my head was nearly identical to ASM, I only needed to learn the implementation details.

      My general rule of thumb is, if I can't master it in 1-3 months, I'm probably never going to be good at it. Generally a 5 minute primer of reading Wiki on a programming topic is all I need before I go into a meeting with a specialist to constantly correct them. No knowledge required, just reasoning. If what the person is saying doesn't sound logical, they're wrong about something. Programming is logical, you only need logic.

      Coding is the nearly brain-dead act of converting an idea into a common language. Programming is creating the idea. The only thing I love about coding is the art of making beautiful code. I will never master that, but it is my life time goal.

    37. Re:So wrong by imgod2u · · Score: 1

      Wow, I had no idea someone could have animosity towards plumbers....

      Fuck that greedy perv Mario.

    38. Re:So wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (Same AC.)

      Apologies, I perhaps took something different away from your comment than you intended. I saw "The idea that everybody needs to learn to code is ridiculous"... and don't really agree that there's a meaningful way to teach "basic computer skills" without getting the person write code. This is different from being a programmer, but I think some direct exposure to coding is a necessary part of "basic computer skills". People don't need to be able to write code, but they do need to be able to comprehend where code could be useful; otherwise we end up with our current situation of a lot of office workers doing repetitive tasks on their computers because they simply don't understand the concepts well enough to know that they could get someone else to automate parts of their workflow. I don't think it's possible to get there without being exposed to actually writing code.

    39. Re:So wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Required? No. We allow people to live in houses and own cars that are incompetent at it. There's no licensing for something like that. But basic life skills should be a goal of education for everyone. To clarify, I'm in favor of better Home Ec in schools in addition to better programming classes.

  5. Code using what ? by psergiu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Code using what programming language ?
    Swift ?
    Whose keywords are english words ? And most of the documentation is in english ?

    The french should sue Apple for not releasing the programming language "Rapide" - where all the keywords are in french. And it understands the following:

    laisser a=quatre-vingt-dix-huit

    --
    1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
    1. Re:Code using what ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      algol is what you're looking for. Keywords are in the native language, although most modern implementations only understand English.

    2. Re:Code using what ? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Pffft, amateurs. The Germans had "Schnell!" even 75 years ago!

      Granted, most of what it did was more mechanical than electronic...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:Code using what ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We actually have at least one language where keywords are in French.

    4. Re:Code using what ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And it understands the following:

      laisser a=quatre-vingt-dix-huit

      I know some French but I wouldn't understand that. God didn't say Laisse là être lumière.

    5. Re:Code using what ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As a french speaking person:
      PLEASE don't give them ideas...

  6. Exactly. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    How is learning to code going to help a ditch digger?

    1. Re:Exactly. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing will help a ditch digger. Nothing.

    2. Re:Exactly. by Tempest_2084 · · Score: 0

      A nice sharp shovel will.

    3. Re: Exactly. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But when he gets home at night he can cheat in video games.
      And he's gonna need it with all that RSI.

    4. Re:Exactly. by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      They don't need help. Digging ditches is good, honorable work.

      in my area, you can make very good money doing it. If you're good at it, you can make as much as a programmer.

    5. Re:Exactly. by ChrisMaple · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Try avoiding buried power lines, phone and cable lines, and pipes with a backhoe. Try getting a backhoe through a gate barely wide enough to walk through.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    6. Re:Exactly. by laupark · · Score: 3, Funny

      A backhoe, an overpaid operator, contracted maintenance, financing for said backhoe, fancy accountant at the home office to deal with a depreciating asset, fleet supervisor to manage company cars for the job site foreman. Insurance for the machine, a CDC driver to deliver the big equipment, ooh, another depreciating capital expense - the truck, more insurance for the truck, Drug testing for operators, Yep, just a backhoe is all anyone needs.

    7. Re:Exactly. by exomondo · · Score: 0

      A backhoe, an overpaid operator, contracted maintenance, financing for said backhoe, fancy accountant at the home office to deal with a depreciating asset, fleet supervisor to manage company cars for the job site foreman. Insurance for the machine, a CDC driver to deliver the big equipment, ooh, another depreciating capital expense - the truck, more insurance for the truck, Drug testing for operators, Yep, just a backhoe is all anyone needs.

      No I just go out, hire a backhoe and do the job as opposed to hiring a team of people to do it in a longer time. You're clearly doing it wrong, I want to dig a hole and you think that involves me somewhere along the line having - among other things - a fleet of company cars.

    8. Re:Exactly. by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      Try employing a backhoe operator who knows what the fuck he's doing, next time.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    9. Re:Exactly. by jenningsthecat · · Score: 2

      How is learning to code going to help a ditch digger?

      Maybe 'Digger' has his or her sights set on some other occupation. Maybe s/he's part of the hacker community, and digging ditches is just how the bills currently get paid. Maybe it's just about broadening horizons and stretching the mind.

      Pigeonholing people based on the jobs they hold is shortsighted and lacking in imagination.

      --
      'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
    10. Re: Exactly. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean a ditch digger. Got it. Thanks.

    11. Re:Exactly. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, just a backhoe is all anyone needs.

      Yep. If what you want to do is dig a ditch it sure is all you need and you can just go rent one. It's best not to overcomplicate things.

    12. Re:Exactly. by sexconker · · Score: 1

      The backhoe operator is the ditch digger. So is his boss, who sent him out to the location and told him what to dig. And so is the guy who looked up the location and checked for cables, pipes, etc. And so is the person you called up and asked to schedule the whole thing. And the guy who drove the backhoe over there on a large truck.

    13. Re: Exactly. by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 2

      I still see people at construction sites, in ditches, with shovels, in the USA, quite often. And it actually pays quite well compared to other menial labor positions.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    14. Re:Exactly. by sexconker · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You just go out and "hire a backhoe"?

      Do you mean rent one? Because if so, bullshit. You've got to transport it, you've got to deal with 611, you've got permits if you're in a residential area, you've got a whole lot of fucking shit.

      If you mean "hire someone to use a backhoe to dig for me", you ARE hiring a team of people. There's the person in the office you spoke with, the manager, the person who buys the equipment, the guy who deals with the permits, the guy who handles the insurance, the guys who run the backhoes, the guys who drive the trucks, etc. etc. You're just ignorant and you don't think beyond what's right in front of your face.

    15. Re: Exactly. by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      You mean one who will hire a ditch digger? You obviously have zero clue about how actual construction work is done.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    16. Re:Exactly. by exomondo · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Do you mean rent one? Because if so, bullshit.

      Yes I do mean rent one, and no not bullshit.

      You've got to transport it

      It's on a trailer, I just hook it up.

      you've got to deal with 611

      611 what? That must just be a thing where you live. The only thing I need to worry about is if it is over a certain tonnage I would need an operator's license but I've never needed to hire anything that big.

      you've got permits if you're in a residential area

      No, no need for permits. Again maybe an issue with your local government.

      you've got a whole lot of fucking shit.

      You mean you're running out of things to list. No it's not the big deal you think it is.

    17. Re:Exactly. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The backhoe operator is the ditch digger. So is his boss, who sent him out to the location and told him what to dig. And so is the guy who looked up the location and checked for cables, pipes, etc. And so is the person you called up and asked to schedule the whole thing. And the guy who drove the backhoe over there on a large truck.

      And his mother who gave birth to him. And is father who provided for him. And his barber who made sure that his hair doesnt get in his eyes, you might think he is a barber but no, he is a ditch digger too. We are all ditch diggers.

    18. Re:Exactly. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eh, I'd rather program. Doesn't involve me ruining my back.

    19. Re:Exactly. by Whatsisname · · Score: 2

      You can absolutely rent backhoes, small excavators, etc. I've personally rented an excavator to help a friend with a basement repair.

      Dealing with 611, which I'm presuming is your local utility locator hotline, is something you have to do even if you are digging a posthole by hand. Additionally, permitting you have to deal with on many projects regardless what equipment you are using.

      Look up your local rental shop, you'll find they rent all the stuff. They'll have skidsteers (bobcats), excavators, tillers, trenchers, etc. If you don't have a trailer to haul it on, they'll rent that too. Your car can't tow 4000 lbs? They'll rent you a truck to tow it too.

    20. Re:Exactly. by Plumber,+Programmer, · · Score: 1

      See the other response - and definitely find out what the utility locator service is in your state (assuming you're in the US) before you dig. If you don't, maybe you just dig up a fiber trunk and are out thousands of dollars. Maybe you dig up a buried electric line or gas line and are out a life.
      I'm sure an untrained person could write a program themselves - if their project is really, really simple. I'm sure an untrained person has a good chance at successfully digging "a hole" out in an open field somewhere with no utilities buried below. But maybe that hole has to be a specific size and shape, or maybe there are obstructions underground you can't just tear out, or maybe it's near a building that you don't want to put a hole in. Or maybe you just have a big project that you need done in a reasonable time. (Equipment rental costs add up, too.)
      These complexities add up, and in a complex situation, you're going to want a professional with experience, whether it's digging a hole, or writing an app.

      And yeah, I've done both.

    21. Re:Exactly. by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      My uncle used to have a one-person backhoe service.

    22. Re:Exactly. by exomondo · · Score: 1

      Yeah, the local government provides a service where you tell them where you're going to dig and they get back to you with the locations and depths of nearby services.

      Really the only thing I was saying is that the 10 guys with shovels are replaced by one guy with an backhoe. And yes there is a lot more that goes into an operation like that in either case.

    23. Re:Exactly. by SCVonSteroids · · Score: 1

      If you mean "hire someone to use a backhoe to dig for me", you ARE hiring a team of people.

      What happened to calling the guy who owns the backhoe, the truck and the flatbed to bring it to your place. Turns out he can operate the thing too, go figure!
      These people aren't the exception either. Not where I live anyways and it's a fairly small place.

      It's just digging a hole. Be careful is all.

      --
      I tend to rant.
    24. Re:Exactly. by SCVonSteroids · · Score: 1

      He speaks of ignorance. Yet his comment was somehow modded up Insightful?!

      --
      I tend to rant.
    25. Re:Exactly. by cstacy · · Score: 1

      You're thinking of a personal rental from an independent contractor, but there's a lot more than just some click to get a backhoe. You're hiring a team.

      The backhoes will actually show up by themselves, but you need people who actually know how to code (front-end developer, back-end / database developer), a hosting service, content managers, side-advertising sales team, administrative assistants, outsourced HR, office rental, and eventually a very expensive legal team.

      And then you'll be put out of that business segment anyway, just like Craigslist.

    26. Re:Exactly. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

      Do you mean rent one?

      Pretty sure he means hire one. You can hire diggers from any good plant hire centre.

      Because if so, bullshit. You've got to transport it,

      I just googled "plant hire with delivery". It seems that there are many plant hire companies who offer both delivery AND collection services. If transport is a problem for you, I'd recommend using one of those.

      you've got permits if you're in a residential area, you've got a whole lot of fucking shit.

      Like planning permission? Sure you need that to start digging up shit generally, but that's not really got much to do with plant hire. You need those even if you're digging by hand. And the plant hire company won't generally help you with it.

      Anyway, google disagrees with you, which means in this case, you're spouting crap. It's really quite easy to hire heavy plant.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    27. Re:Exactly. by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      The funny thing is that I have a friend who digs ditches (backhoe operator). He's mentioned more than once how he could never stomach being a software engineer -- he couldn't stand sitting at a desk, inside, all day.

    28. Re:Exactly. by beastofburdon · · Score: 0

      Ever heard of a DitchWitch? It works even better for narrow ditches. http://www.ditchwitchsales.com...

    29. Re:Exactly. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's personally helped this previous ditch digger (concrete mason to be exact.)

      I did this for several years as I worked my way through vocational school. I now work as a network administrator, but I use code in my day to day activities. I also code some in my spare time for fun. I don't believe everyone needs to learn the latest fad language, or even a language at all. I do believe that receiving my Intro to Programming (pseudo code) at the high school level would have helped set some standards of logic earlier in my career and helped me along my path a little quicker, as well as a basic Intro to Computers course. Not only that, but I believe that by exposing some potential ditch diggers to these courses earlier along in their own paths may develop a spark of interest into the studies that the 'hard maths' don't currently cultivate.

      I found learning Geometry and Trig were much more exciting and satisfying when I actually had a reason to apply it when learning some game design as an adult, as opposed to when the courses were taught in high school with little real world application to my young teenage mind. Would this widely apply to the direct professions of our population? Of course not, but I'm not a professional baker or carpenter but I highly appreciate the limited experience of taking home-ec and shop in school.

    30. Re:Exactly. by hackertourist · · Score: 1

      Not many people know this, but a backhoe is a very effective divining rod. Unless directed very carefully, it will find and hit every pipe and cable in the general vicinity.

    31. Re:Exactly. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You've got to transport it, you've got to deal with 611, you've got permits if you're in a residential area, you've got a whole lot of fucking shit.

      So if the hole is dug by people they dont have to be transported to the location and they don't need permits and they don't need "a whole lot of fucking shit"? Manual Labor - it just teleports in, you get your ditch dug and no permits required!

  7. Everyone should learn to code... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...so I can pay even less for developers.

    1. Re:Everyone should learn to code... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's the fear the naysayers here have. If everyone learns basic computer programming, that developers won't be paid well in the future.

      These are the same people who, in related discussions, will make laughable claims like programming requires a 'special mind' or some other nonsense.

      They know the truth. Programming is ridiculously simple. So simple, in fact, that children can and do teach themselves. In the 80's, you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a kid that wrote their own games on their home micro for fun. In my 4th grade class, about ~20% of the kids wrote computer programs -- about the same number that had a micro.

      If the only skill you have is computer programming, and you know that any idiot can learn to do your job, you sure as hell would fight against teaching programming in schools along side the three R's. People wouldn't think you were 'smart' or 'special' any more.

      They're not emotionally stable enough to handle reality.

    2. Re:Everyone should learn to code... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      teaching programming in schools along side the three R's.

      If they were doing statistics the fourth R might actually be R.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    3. Re:Everyone should learn to code... by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      AC re micro and "can and do teach themselves. "
      The computers sold and offered?
      Dragon 32/64 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      BBC Micro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      Amstrad CPC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      ZX Spectrum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      The MSX architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ?
      People found Basic in included computer booklets, published game books or magazines. They typed in the fun games.
      Just typing in anther persons code is not learning how to code. Borrowing a tape, book or buying a magazine allowed a lot of people to play games. The 1980's generation did not all become experts and nations like the UK who invested so much in early computer education did not get to take over the emerging global computer market.

      The US educational method was better. Teach math from traditional low cost books to students. Teach advanced math skills using lower cost calculators.
      Then test all students to sort out the smart students. Offer the best of the best and only the best university places, scholarships.
      No need to give every school in the USA lots of expensive early computers, have to invest in code skills, computers and "computer" teachers.
      Test for math early on. Then let only best who passed all the testing on merit learn with expensive, new computers at university.
      The US was then able to sell advanced computer products in the UK as the UK production lines closed and costs caught up with trying nation wide computer education.

      Putting robot kits, new computers, more experts into schools will not make well below average and very average students into top computer experts.
      Focus on the best at math and ensure after years of testing they get to a good university.
      The other students might find jobs they enjoy in biology, further vocational education, the arts, sport, music, languages, transportation, housekeeping, teaching.
      Such jobs use computers but that can be taught depending on the job.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    4. Re:Everyone should learn to code... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wouldnt say the US was much different from the UK in how it was taught. I think there's a bit of hindsight being applied there. The UK is one fifth the size of the USA, so that made a big difference in the relative successes of the players. And there have been successes from the UK. ARM is the biggest overall probably, which traces right back to the BBC Micro from those old days. The ARM processor architecture dominates mobile processors. In fact it is quite possibly the most successful of all time as a result of that (as in units shipped).

      Now ARM is part of Softbank of course, but the price it went for was huge. And Softbank is essential an integrator, not an inventor. What remains to be seen is whether China is able to outcompete the USA due to its larger domestic market. There are already some early successes like Huawei, DJI and so on.

    5. Re:Everyone should learn to code... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Are we talking about programming or slapping code together that somehow does shit? Because yes, the latter is easy. Sadly, because it also means that we're stuck with horribly inefficient, insecure and unmanageable code that people wrote that thought they can program when all they actually were capable of was cargo-cult programming and cribbing from various webpages.

      And we sure as FUCK don't need more idiots like that!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    6. Re:Everyone should learn to code... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Very insightful, thank you! I remember my "informatics" class in secondary school in the 80s. It was fucking useless. The teacher would write a BASIC program on the blackboard and we were supposed to spot syntax errors. Even if we had worked with real computers, the only useful aspect of this kind of education is helping kids who are afraid of trying things out to do the first step. It would have been so much more useful for my programming skills to learn more math and formal reasoning, foundations that I only acquired recently when it was much harder due to age. Kids who are interested in coding can learn it on their own. Kids who aren't, there is no point in making them.

  8. Conveniently... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... it also helps Apple lower pay for existing coders. What a co-inkydink!

  9. Not everyone by DarkRookie · · Score: 2

    Not everyone needs to know how to code. Not everyone has the talent for it. Adding more and more subpar coders is only going to make stuff worse, not better.

    --
    The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
    1. Re:Not everyone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From the looks of ios11 subpar coders is what they have been hiring.

    2. Re:Not everyone by zlives · · Score: 1

      thats why every one needs to code so he can find a decent coder in all the multitude to fix the pile-o-iOS

    3. Re:Not everyone by Tranzistors · · Score: 1

      Not everyone needs to know how to code. Not everyone has the talent for it. Adding more and more subpar coders is only going to make stuff worse, not better.

      Let's rewrite this a bit:

      Not everyone needs to know how to write. Not everyone has the talent for it. Adding more and more subpar writers is only going to make stuff worse, not better.

      In a sense yes, you are right. Just combing through /. it's becoming obvious that some people are just horrible at writing and this community has suffered from it.

  10. What kind of a stupid statement is that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck apple

  11. Learn to code by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's more important than English!

    Says a CEO MBA who doesn't know how to code.

    1. Re:Learn to code by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Well, he knows English, and just look at how he drives Apple into the ground. His logic is sound, English didn't do diddly jack to make me run this company efficiently, maybe programming would have.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  12. Don't be retarded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you're coding you need to know english.
    Otherwise how are you going to collaborate with other coders, almost all of whom will speak english as either a first or second language?

    1. Re:Don't be retarded by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Collaborate? How about "how would you LEARN the effin' programming language?"

      99% of all documentation, at least past the absolute basics, is available in English only.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Don't be retarded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I learned how to program before I even had a computer or any books to read on the topic. Programming is a purely mental activity. Just think about the problem, then try to solve it using one self-descriptive atomic "command" at a time. I haven't learned much about programming since the age of 10. Pretty much everything that I "learned" later on in life I had already though about and solved.

      With a whole week of programming experience under my belt, I wrote my first program. I wrote it from scratch in 2 weeks, and it replaced a project that a 6 man team worked on for 2 years. Except my version fixed all of their outstanding bugs that they had spent nearly 3 months trying to fix with no headway, ran about 1,000x faster in the simple case, but due to scaling, was about 1,000,000x faster for common difficult cases.

      My version of the project went into production and didn't have a single bug reported for nearly 3 years. The eventual bug was a race condition, that I diagnosed without ever looking at the code. I fixed it in a few hours by writing my own lock-less thread-safe data structure. It has now been running flawlessly for another 4 years.

      This one example pretty much describes how every project I have ever worked on has gone.

  13. bool are_you_a_coder(uint8_t age); by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    bool are_you_a_coder(uint8_t age) {
    assert(age < 30);
    return true;
    }

    1. Re: bool are_you_a_coder(uint8_t age); by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ugh, not true. Let me correct that for you:

      bool are_you_a_code_monkey(uint8_t age);

  14. In the future we won't need ditch diggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All the former ditch diggers will have coded ditch digging robots.

    1. Re:In the future we won't need ditch diggers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All your ditch digging belong to us.

  15. Colleges by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    A former uncle-in-law of mine said when he went to college (back in the late 60s/early 70s) taking programing classes counted towards the foreign language requirement. Fast forward to when I was in college (90s), same college, yet they did *not* count as a foreign language class. And I really really wished they had. Programing languages are easy for me because they (well most) are built on logic, real languages are not (and they change overtime and other languages influence them as well, so the rules are not strict and riddled with exceptions).

    1. Re: Colleges by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should try Latin or German.

    2. Re: Colleges by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Care to show me the logic in German grammatical genders? The sentence "The girl puts the milk on the table" would, with pronouns substituting the nouns, be "It puts her on him" in German!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  16. That's nice, but... by andywest · · Score: 2
    • Cook does not say in what language, of which there are very many; or
    • that most of those languages use English words, meaning that you will still have to learn at least minimal English — especially if you write comments in your code; or
    • that his ultimate goal is to flood the market with programmers and thereby push down the average wage that they earn — which in turn will drive the truly talented to look for other careers.

    This seems like Cook is looking to turn the States into a land of cheap programming labor, like those lands that corporate America enjoy today.

    --
    --- Andy West http://andywest.org
    1. Re:That's nice, but... by painandgreed · · Score: 2

      This seems like Cook is looking to turn the States into a land of cheap programming labor, like those lands that corporate America enjoy today.

      Code and fast pizza delivery. They're the only thing that the US can do better than anybody else any more.

    2. Re:That's nice, but... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      But both, the code and the pizza, ain't worth getting...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:That's nice, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't look at the scrolls, it'll hack your brain.

  17. 100% of people should be software engineers by DalM · · Score: 2

    Because, you know, we don't need any other services in this world. We will code the trash pick up.

  18. No. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No.

    Show me some proof of your contention and then show me some actual $$$ gains by learning to code across the fucking board or I call bullshit.

  19. Programming language...but in what language? by TheZeitgeist · · Score: 1

    If one wants to learn programming and doesn't speak English, learning some English would actually go a long ways to learning programming given every language that matters was written in English. An if statement is inscrutable to most to be sure, but its that much more inscrutable to someone who doesn't know what 'if' means when they see it in the source.

  20. AKA "We value your code/apps... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... because we get 30% of the $ you fools! Make me richer than I already am! Apple having $260 billion in cash just isn't enough! Muhahahaha!"

  21. Did he learn to code himself? by bogaboga · · Score: 2

    Anyone know? Or was he simply reading off some prepared script or a teleprompter?

    1. Re:Did he learn to code himself? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

      Cook can handle pivot tables like nobody's business.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:Did he learn to code himself? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know Bill Gates not only is a machine, he also learned to code himself.

  22. Learn to Import learn to export by Yergle143 · · Score: 1

    And learn to haggle in some language not your own. In my set of engineers scientists lawyers and physicians do you know who has his own jet? The dumb one who took Mandarin and set up a business importing Jeans.
    And also it is a real problem in France not to have mastery of the world's second language.

  23. Question to Tim Cook: by klingens · · Score: 1

    If it's so important, what kind of programs have you written? How many? In what language?

  24. High on crack. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or learn both (like everyone that can code that I know).

    In this day an age I would say it's harder NOT to learn english than learning it.
    Heck I have a friend that learned it only from reading anime sub (he didn't speak english nor japanese).
    Many that learned it from video game,
    My GF learned it mostly from reading song lyrics
    Her parents from TV
    My parents from movies
    Sister in law from english speaking friends,

    Sad thing: people I know that don't understand english yet are the one that only tried to learn it at school...

  25. Translation by DatbeDank · · Score: 1

    "Everyone needs to learn how to code so I can grow my business and pay my programmers the absolute bare minimum because there are so many programmers and I sense a certain administration closing the noose on the previous methods of reducing wage costs."

    Does anyone want to guess how much steam the Apple engine has left now that Tim has been slowly rehashing every idea Steve came up with?

  26. Where's the bathroom? by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

    This is pretty remarkable... I had no idea that humans were able to communication with each other universally using code!

    Let's see....

    if (!this->stdout)
            buffer_overflow()
    else
            aaaaahhhhhhh()

    Everyone understood that, right?

    1. Re:Where's the bathroom? by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      I think I just dumped core.

    2. Re:Where's the bathroom? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you forgot a
      goto fail;

  27. What everyone *needs* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is to learn to not be uppity peasants and respect your betters...

    1. Re:What everyone *needs* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go away Soros.

    2. Re: What everyone *needs* by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      I ls -l to learn permissions

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    3. Re:What everyone *needs* by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      Go away Murdoch.

      TFTFY.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    4. Re:What everyone *needs* by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Respect is earned, not given freely. And few who consider themselves "betters" have done anything to earn respect. What they deserve is a bullet, and what keeps them alive is that they ain't worth the jail time.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  28. More important: learn to debug and fix code by Sebby · · Score: 1

    Given how many bugs macOS and iOS now have, I think that'll be a skill even more in demand.

    --

    AC comments get piped to /dev/null
  29. Well, Apple would say that by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

    I'm not telling people not to learn English in some form -- but I think you understand what I am saying is that this is a language that you can [use to] express yourself to 7 billion people in the world,

    Considering Google's recent offering, it would probably be even better if you can express yourself clearly and completely in your own native language.

  30. Liar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Learn To Code - so I can drive my costs down further. Fuck you.

    1. Re: Liar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It seems like a large number of coders would help the competition too. If you have a bunch of skilled people in your field they may out-innovate you.

    2. Re: Liar by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      As a software engineer, I would love to see more skilled software engineers! Competition is good. Being out-innovated can be very beneficial by pointing out your blind side and making you step up your game.

  31. Coding is ENGLISH by gurps_npc · · Score: 1

    What you think the following words were 'universal'?

    If
    Then
    Until
    While
    else

    It's written left to right, the non-letter characters are also from english.

    You want to learn to code? Learn English first.

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
    1. Re:Coding is ENGLISH by imgod2u · · Score: 2

      Well, you need to learn *those* english words. Probably a few subsets as well. That's really about it.

      There's a vast difference between understanding the words in programming syntax -- which more often than not are not contextual and have a 1-to-1 transliteration with whatever language you know -- than it is to understand why "10k spoons when all you need is a knife" is not ironic.

    2. Re:Coding is ENGLISH by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      Well, you need to learn *those* english words. Probably a few subsets as well. That's really about it.

      This. And technically, you don't even need to know what they mean as English words. You can treat them as tokens.

    3. Re:Coding is ENGLISH by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      and only just enough english to read and understand all the language and library documentation, which is all in english.
      So basically, you should learn english, because the common programming languages are documented in english.

    4. Re:Coding is ENGLISH by gurps_npc · · Score: 1

      90% of programmers use google to fix coding problems. Try to do it in Spanish.

      Then come back and talk to me.

      Is it impossible to learn to code without first learning English? No.

      But note that most coders can at least read and write English.

      --
      excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
    5. Re: Coding is ENGLISH by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      I hope nobody ever invents named variables and functions!

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    6. Re:Coding is ENGLISH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, you should treat them as arbitrary tokens. If you think about the ordinary English meaning of "static" or "volatile" you won't write very good C/C++.

  32. It does not get much more stupid than this by gweihir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, it does not. The level most people can learn to code on (with significant effort) is maybe comparable to being able to order a beer or to say "thank you" in a foreign language. Coding is an experts-only game and it will remain that. You would not seriously advise people to "learn to do mathematical proofs", would you? Coding on any level where it is worthwhile doing is on that level and often even harder, since you need to understand the machine you are coding for.

    Of course, Cook will likely know that very well and just wants to assure a steady supply of cheap, low-quality coders. The stupidity here is with those that believe such statements.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:It does not get much more stupid than this by JohnFen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Coding is an experts-only game and it will remain that.

      Well, I wouldn't put it exactly like that, but I have noticed something in common with all of the truly excellent software engineers I've worked with:

      all of them loved programming from a very early age, and taught themselves how to do it. All of them were producing working programs in grade school, well before any formal programming classes were available.

      What distinguishes a real expert (in any field, I think) is not intelligence, formal training, or job experience. It's interest. If you love doing something, you will do it a lot -- and the only road to being an expert is a ton of practice.

    2. Re:It does not get much more stupid than this by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Well, this is type of interest is certainly required. It is _the_ distinguishing factor. In order to become really good, however, that intelligence, formal training and experience, and some special type of talent apart from intelligence, is required as well. Of course, intelligence, formal training and experience are not worth much without that type of interest. That is why the best software engineers will often have those academic credentials, but you also find many not very good software engineers that basically only have those credentials, but lack the critical rest.

      I also found that those with the interest but not the rest are good at problems they can completely understand in one go, i.e. that sort of "fit into their head in one piece", but become limited when that is not the case. So do not disregard "formal" qualifications. They are not worth much on their own, but for a person that has that interest, they are a massive booster. Even smart and capable people profit immensely from standing on the shoulders of giants.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    3. Re:It does not get much more stupid than this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      all of them loved programming from a very early age, and taught themselves how to do it. All of them were producing working programs in grade school, well before any formal programming classes were available.

      Age 5 is when I started. I was programming blackjack and craps games in grade school, and I once translated a checkers game from one dialect of Basic to another.

      I'm still coding apps and analyzing network protocols, in my basement. I make sure to mention my fascinating worthless hobbies (oh sorry, "side projects") every time I fail another interview. Now adult, I'm still as unemployed as I was in grade school. Every time I apply for paid tech work, it's the same old doubletalk rejection story: "Wow, you're really knowledgeable but, uh, you just don't have the skills." I live and breathe code, and I can't find work.

      For tech experts who show any genuine interest, tech is a hobby and can't be anything else. There is absolutely no way to earn a living in the tech industry. None. Practice makes a perfect waste of time.

      Get this straight, faker. Coders who truly love to code are unemployable losers, because they are genuinely passionate about the work instead of fake "passionate" like you.

    4. Re:It does not get much more stupid than this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Considering I can't do pumping lemma proofs (or the non-masturbatory kind), got Fs and Ds in discrete math, can never remember how to multiply matrices, and never took linear algebra yet I've written a multi-threaded agent-based messaging system, a med-level RTS AI, an OCR tool, a computer vision library that tracks board games moves to generate a move log of a game, and tons of bug fixes and refactoring of legacy systems into sane architectures. Considering all that, your and everyone else's claim that programming requires advanced math skills is complete horseshit. Coding is definitely not an experts-only game. The majority of programmers are far below expert level. Very, very few places actually engineer their software. Only those guys are the experts. If you're creatively solving problems it's unlikely you're an expert. You're not making logical choices on which designs and trade offs are best. You're not leaving an audit-able trail of decisions on why all the choices you've made are the best choices. You're not engineering anything, you're cobbling things together off the seat of your pants. You can certainly get far doing that, but you're not working at the higher levels.

      Only the the board game CV software required understanding the machine I was coding for because I needed to know the video frame rate and ensure I was processing the feed fast enough for real-time tracking. Everything else, including the RTS AI, wasn't even linked to an OS. If you can't abstract away the machine for all non-embedded and non-super computing jobs, you suck at programming.

      Learning coding, meaning learning how to script a few of your common tasks, would be useful to almost everyone and more-so than a 2nd language. It's always important to know the tools you use and very few people bother to learn them. How many people don't know the copy and paste shortcuts? It took me a year of having an iPhone before I released you could press down on some text for a moment to be able to exactly position the cursor. Most software is crap. Experts are very few and very far between.

    5. Re:It does not get much more stupid than this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So there are no truly excellent software engineers above 60. Got it, thanks. None of them were programming at an early age.

      Interest makes it easier to gain experience. Despite what you wrote, you actually value experience: "you will do it a lot" and "only road to being an expert is a ton of practice". There are tons of things people become experts at which they dislike doing, such as doing laundry or washing dishes. I hate folding clothing, so I've studied and learned to do it in the most efficient way possible in order to spend the lease amount of time on it. I can pickup a shirt, flap it around a few times in the air, and put it back down folded. I'd consider that expert level folding and I still hate it.

      Too many people are blind and only see what they want to see.

    6. Re:It does not get much more stupid than this by gweihir · · Score: 1

      And apparently you are also functionally illiterate. Because that is not what I said. What I said is that you need skills that fall into a similar difficulty class to be any good at it.

      Incidentally, throwing your apparent credentials around is a meaningless gesture, first because all your claims can be fulfilled on a relatively low level of difficulty and second, they can be fulfilled badly.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    7. Re:It does not get much more stupid than this by pD-brane · · Score: 1

      Coding is an experts-only game and it will remain that.

      No, there is sadly a lot of bad software written, which suggests that coding is not an experts-only game (anymore).

      Don't confuse idealism with reality.

    8. Re:It does not get much more stupid than this by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      Coding is an experts-only game and it will remain that.

      It manifestly isn't and so certainly will not.

      To be an expert, you need to be, well, an expert. To build the best things with the higest performance/scalability/whatever then yes you do indeed need t obe an expert.

      There are legions of people who program and are not experts and will never be experts. For a start, once you start putting formulae in, spreadsheets are programs. There are a variety of people of all levels using spreadsheets, some who know the basics, some intermediate and some remarkably advanced.

      It's programming of a sort, and many might wel benefit from having had some formal education in programming because many of them don't even realis they're programming. But these people will most likely never become expert programmers.

      There are many more. Many scientsts and engineers do little bits of coding and scripting here and there. Many more *ought* to but don't know how. generally they won't ever become experts because they have science and engineering to do and need enough programming to get by.

      And many more abound.

      You would not seriously advise people to "learn to do mathematical proofs", would you?

      Don't people learn that in school? I'm pretty sure I remember doing geometric proofs in school and a few others even though school-maths is very poorly done.

      I ain't a mathematician, I'm an engineer, but occasionally I need to derive something or other simple. Not sure to science sure, but new to me and useful. I'm never going to be a mathemetician since I'm not smart enough but those little bits here and there are essential to my job.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
  33. Can he code? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think itâ(TM)s important to have a grasp of coding and whatâ(TM)s involved in it. Just like everyone should have basic electrical and plumbing skills. You should have some understanding of how the world around you works or else you will keep electing or selecting fast talking idiots to run things.

    1. Re:Can he code? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      since H1B program began most programmers have been grabbing their ankles, so I guess he thinks he has something in common with them

    2. Re:Can he code? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean like that n!gger obama? Thank god he's gone. Just wish he'd take his cronies with him.

    3. Re:Can he code? by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      Yes, Trump is so much easier to deal with--you know from the outset that he's out to screw you.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  34. Old News, Tim... by ITapeFatCashews · · Score: 2

    I was looking at university catalogs in the mid-1990's. Many were willing to waive the foreign language requirement if a programming language course was taken. Pascal and C were popular programming languages. I've never heard anyone speak Pascal or C. That gibberish sounded like Greek anyway.

    1. Re:Old News, Tim... by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      Equating learning a programming language with learning a human language is nonsensical, in my opinion. Despite the fact that the word "language" is used for both of those things, the two things are very, very different. They use different mental skills and address very different problems.

  35. I'd rather be a doctor than a coder by bib1620 · · Score: 1

    Not everyone wants to code, not even a majority of people want to do that. There are many other jobs available that people aspire to, medicine, mechanical engineering, novel writing. The tech industry should get away from this notion that every child should learn to code.

    1. Re:I'd rather be a doctor than a coder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not everyone wants to play an instrument, read sheet music, etc., but everyone has to learn the basics in music class.

      Not everyone wants to draw/paint/sculpt/etc, but everyone has to take an art class.

      Not everyone wants to read or write books, but we still make them learn composition and reading skills beyond basic literacy.

      Not everyone wants a life that requires math beyond basic arithmetic, but we force them anyway.

      Not everyone wants to be a biologist, physicist, or chemist, but everyone must take those classes.

      Your argument is stupid.

    2. Re:I'd rather be a doctor than a coder by Baron_Yam · · Score: 1

      > The tech industry should get away from this notion that every child should learn to code.

      I would be happy with the education industry getting on board with the idea that all children should be taught how to break down a job into steps and organize them into logical units in a logical order. Now THAT is a useful and fairly general life skill.

      Coding, not so much.

  36. Wrong by markdavis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >"Apple CEO Tim Cook says it is more important to learn how to code than it is to learn English as a second language."

    And that just shows how ignorant he really is. Knowing English is far, far, more important than learning coding. It is useful in just about every single field out there and give you the ability to communicate to nearly anyone on Earth, certainly any place that has a strong economy and/or strong educational system. But most importantly, communication language is something best learned when very young. The brain designed to be wide open and ready for communication language ability. Computer coding is something the brain is NOT really ready for when very young- that comes later with logic, reasoning, math, etc. And keep in mind that while all humans can easily learn English [when young], that is NOT true for coding- there is a large portion, perhaps a majority, of people who will never really learn or master coding at ANY age.

    Knowing both (English and Coding) is great. But if you have to choose one, make it English and teach it young. If you can do both, teach coding later, after English.

    1. Re:Wrong by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      To add some European context, a few months ago I drove 3 hours in the car. In those 3 hours I passed through 4 areas with 4 different native languages (Dutch, French, German, Luxembourgish) broken up into 8 different dialects. None of this included English as a primary, yet that is the only language I could rely on to use at every step of my trip.

      If I had anything to say in response to Apple's CEO using code I'd write it in Brainfuck since that seems to be the only thing that would make sense to him.

    2. Re:Wrong by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      that just shows how ignorant he really is

      Of course but he didn't say that because he really thought that was true, he said that for the purpose of marketing .

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    3. Re:Wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree that being able to understand English is more important than coding. But my problem is Google translate. Within few years they can translate English into my language better than professional translators (people). When you have that kind of automation in translation, is English still more important than programming? We don't nowadays teach every kid how to milk a cow, because robots do that job.

    4. Re:Wrong by markdavis · · Score: 1

      >" When you have that kind of automation in translation, is English still more important than programming? "

      I think so, yes.

      This is because although computers will eventually become very good at translation, they still won't have the finesse that understanding a language does. Plus, it frees one from dependency on technology, which is not always available, and certainly not always secure. And finally, as others have pointed out, when coding, the computer code, itself, is often in English. Plus good, short comments often don't translate well.

  37. Comparisons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In other news, oranges are more important than apples.

  38. Utilitarism as its maximum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For companies that need cheap code monkeys.

  39. Teach computers to code first. by deviated_prevert · · Score: 1
    Computers might be the ones who need to learn how to code. SPOOKY as hell because when you set the task of communication computer to computer in terms of AI it can cause the creation of new language. I know this is different from being self aware and codex ergo sum is not that same as je pense, donc je suis but perhaps it is a start and it is a related first step. Tim Cook is wrong here the future of computer coding might very well be by humans not creating the complete algorithms.

    After all, a complicated set of libraries is all computer languages become. And with the extent and diversity of functions and myriad of libraries needed to create programs in the future, the task will become far better suited to computer memory than humans. Better to bore a computer to death with billions of lines of code than ruin a students brain with the rote learning of millions of interrelated library functions.

    --
    This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
  40. Let me translate by kaatochacha · · Score: 1, Insightful

    "If everyone learns to code, then we can pay programmers less. Thank you!"

  41. Coding is easy if you can learn it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You need to be able to talk to other people, and the Lingua Franca at the moment is English. You could argue that Chinese may become more important sometime in the next century, but not French, even though that's where the term Lingua Franca comes from. English is a lot to learn and get fluent in, but once you get there it's not going to change on you. Simple coding on the other hand is easy, if you can learn it at all. But anything you learn beyond that is going to have very limited uses and is going to become obsolete quickly. It's just like memorizing keyboard shortcuts for WordStar in school. In the 90s. Because school is always going to lag behind the real world.

    And then there's this problem: Many people cannot learn to code in a meaningful way. They'll always be stuck unless they can copy&paste a working solution. Coding is unlike anything else that kids learn in school: Broadly speaking, first they're taught to memorize and imitate. Then they learn how to apply given algorithms to given inputs. Then they learn to find the inputs in situations where the algorithm is still given or at least hinted at. Finally they must select algorithms that they were taught to solve problems. And then there's coding, where you fundamentally have to come up with new algorithms. It's important to see that this is fundamentally different from the other things that kids learn in school. Even the creative classes are just applications of algorithms. The creative process is limited to the choice of tools and methods.

    Sure, you can teach kids to "write" a game after they've been shown how. That is what code camps do, but at best you can teach APIs that way. It does not teach what is fundamental to coding: Finding a new solution. The reason why there are so few people who can actually do that is that we have no idea how to teach that. It certainly isn't taught in schools. It the kids are lucky, they get a chance to exercise that ability, if they have it, but mostly we just sort them into haves and have nots with regard to that ability. It is unrealistic to expect that most students will learn how to write programs beyond fairly simple if-this-then-that configurations. Learning English is going to be far more useful to many people than writing code at that level.

    That said, if you can learn to code, you definitely should, even if you don't want to make it your profession. It is amazingly useful to be able to automate things.

  42. I know how to code by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've known how to code for decades and I never actually see any jobs that would be applicable to me, a novice. I'd have to pretend I'm some kind of expert in coding that has invented my own sorting algorithms to feel confident applying to the jobs with the requirements they post.

    1. Re:I know how to code by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've known how to code for decades

      You're too old to code.

  43. Re:Rust is becoming the de facto language by JohnFen · · Score: 2

    Huh?

    Rust is the 43rd most popular programming language in the world in 2017. I've been working with international teams for over a decade now and, although personal experience doesn't mean anything at all in these sorts of things, I have never personally seen Rust used for professional programming.

    Although it pains me to say it, since I hate the language, I think that if you have to pick one that is closest to being "universal", it would be Java.

  44. Actually by DaMattster · · Score: 1

    The job growth is NOT in IT! Go learn a trade.

  45. Re: Rust is becoming the de facto language by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ahh bless your little cotton socks. Keep telling yourself this kiddo; enjoy your little bubble before you grow up and discover the rest of the world.

  46. Does Tim Cook even code? by King_TJ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously ... I've never heard a reference to any software he developed before?

    Bill Gates, by contrast, actually DID write some code, including part of the BASIC operating system that was used in some of the old Radio Shack TRS-80 computers.

    It seems to me like if you haven't learned to code yourself, it's pretty hypocritical to declare that all students need to learn it now.

    1. Re:Does Tim Cook even code? by painandgreed · · Score: 2

      It seems to me like if you haven't learned to code yourself, it's pretty hypocritical to declare that all students need to learn it now.

      Well, no, I don't think Tim Cook ever wrote any code. His claim to fame was the business guy that went to Asia and secured the supply chain to make sure that not only could Apple build as many iPhones as they wanted, but also tied up all stock of component parts so that nobody else could build a competitor phone with the same or better parts. Here he is, as a business man, telling the French that between learning English or learning a skill, particularly one that the US is currently known for, they'd be better off learning the skill. So, it could be taken to be saying that if they want to code, in the future, they will be just as well off doing it in their country for people that speak their own language.

      Then again, he might just be telling everybody to code because he heads a large computer company that's all he cares about or because he wants lots of cheap workers in the future.

    2. Re:Does Tim Cook even code? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The level of comments here has gone down. The point is that coding is important in the technological age. Everyone seems to be focusing on non-relevant points of insult.

      In Russia they focus on coding in school. Why aren't we trying to keep up with them, here in the US?

    3. Re:Does Tim Cook even code? by vlueboy · · Score: 1

      Seriously ... I've never heard a reference to any software he developed before?

      Just as importantly: Did Tim Cook's command of English REALLY come as a second language?
      As far as I know he's just not qualified to guide the world on either of the 2 points he's contrasting.

      But he's in the rich and famous club... therefore millions of people and the governments listening to him will give him and others a free pass. The blind leading the blind

  47. Says the man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    for whom English is his 1st language.
     

  48. Dreamed of X86 Assembler speaking aliens by Dareth · · Score: 2

    Dreamed of X86 Assembler speaking aliens. Though once they had defined their data section, I knew everything they could possibly say to me.

    --

    I only look human.
    My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
  49. Coding not about language but logic and creativity by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 2

    Comparing coding to language is an exercise in shortsightedness.

  50. Apple isn't dead but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the only thing that, at this point, could bring it back to its former glory is probably Scott Forestall. He wasn't nice, but neither was Jobs. At any rate, it'd be an improvement on the horror that Cook has wrought on the organization.

  51. Re: Rust is becoming the de facto language by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unfortunately a Gartner Group study determined that 87% of Rust programmers are douchebags, and the other 13% are incontinent millennials.

  52. Re:Rust is becoming the de facto language by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Being as close as we've gotten so far to being a universal language

    I thought that was Scheme. Including the "diverse and distributed international team". (Will Rust add continuations and guaranteed proper tail calls at some point?)

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  53. Apple isn't dead but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    likely the only person who could bring it back to its former glory is Scott Forestall. He wasn't nice, but neither was Jobs. Regardless, it'd be an improvement to the horrors that Cook has wrought upon the organization.

  54. Programming language != natural language! by superdude72 · · Score: 1, Troll

    This idea that learning to code is analogous to learning a natural language is a stupid one, usually promulgated by red-state xenophobes who really just want to cut funding for foreign language instruction, and send everyone to YouTube for a free Intro to Java tutorial and pretend it's just as good.

    Seriously. It's bullshit. Just stop. Please.

    1. Re:Programming language != natural language! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah that Tim Cook. A red state xenophobe if there ever was one. Dumbass

  55. Re: Rust is becoming the de facto language by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ..."de facto language" in your stupid butthole.

  56. And how I am supposed to code in French? by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

    Here : https://developer.apple.com/do...
    I see a button for Chinese, Japanese, Korean. The rest is in English. There is nothing in French.
    So how am I supposed to know what your system does if I can't read English Mr. Cook? Maybe I should learn Chinese?

    Languages other than English are always second class in computing. You can't code effectively without at least some basic English skills. Though if the point is to teach code as a support for logical reasoning, then why not, but in that case, it is much closer to maths than it is to any natural language.

  57. languages by total number of speakers by TheSync · · Score: 1

    Mandarin Chinese 1.09 billion speakers
    English 983 million speakers ...
    French 229 million speakers

    If you know Chinese or English, you can determine the requirements of nearly a billion people for any code you write. If you know English, 611 million of those people could be outside the US and England.

    If you know Mandarin Chinese, only about 100 million speakers would be outside of "greater China" (PRC/HK/ROC/other Asian Ethnic Chinese)

    Now it is true that 115 million African people spread across 31 Francophone countries can speak French as either a first or a second language, and there will be more of them (perhaps 700 million) by 2050. So learning French is a bit of a gamble of the economic and demographic growth of Africa.

    1. Re:languages by total number of speakers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not sure I believe those numbers of yours. Are they referring to first language native speakers? Because the number of people who can speak and understand English to some basic level - i.e. enough to get through daily life, is way higher than that. And I mean x2 or x3 that number. I've been to 60 or more countries, and I'm typing this from Shanghai. You expect me to believe that only 1 in 6 in the world speaks any english at all...?? really?? my experience is rather different to that.

      Sorry, but that's just rubbish.

      The number of people who can speak and understand Mandarin is not much higher than the number who speak it natively. Even in Hong Kong most people dont. And the writing system is a huge barrier. I'm still studying Chinese characters 20 years after I started... (and probably still will be in another 10 year). You can learn reasonable read/writing skills in the Roman alphabet in a few months without a lot of trouble.

    2. Re:languages by total number of speakers by TheSync · · Score: 1

      Data on total number of speakers from Wikipedia, with Ethnologue as a primary source.

  58. learning to code... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The discussion here is not to make everybody expert programmers.
    Programming like any skill that you develop (either in terms of trades or professions) for most people takes time to get proficient at. There is an amassed knowledge that you draw on as you gain more experience as there is in any field.
    The discussion here is to get people to be aware of it from an early age and for those that have the desire to continue down that path.
    In schools many subjects are taught ranging from physical education, physics, chemistry, home economics to the study of literature and the understanding of basic integral calculus.
    How many people in their daily lives use integral calculus or bake a cake, or build a house? many in specific fields but those utilizing ALL of the subject matter taught at schools? I have never heard of anyone that does that.

    We are taught the basics of many fields of endeavor so that those of us that wish to pursue careers in those fields can go on to study them further - everyone is different so why not teach everyone to co from an early stage - those that enjoy it will go on to learn more and become more proficient those that don't will still have a rudimentary enough understanding.

  59. Learn code before English by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

    Says the native english speaker who can't code.

    Well done Mr Cook!

  60. Re:Coding not about language but logic and creativ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Comparing coding to language is an exercise in shortsightedness.

    Exactly. Schools should be teaching students how to think, how to learn what they do not already know, and exposing them to diverse topics against which they can ply these skills.

    If you can do these things, you can learn to "code" if you choose, whenever you choose. Or you can learn whatever skill will be useful 10 years from now when "coding" is as sought-after a job qualification as typing 75 WPM.

  61. he says in English by Potor · · Score: 1

    So, how does he expect to be understood by the French? In code?

  62. Tech assholes like Tim Cook... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tech assholes like Tim Cook keep pushing and pushing to get people to learn to "code" because the more people DO it, the LOWER the wages they will be able to demand.

    DUH.

    They aren't giving the kids advice that helps the KIDS, they're giving the kids advice that helps THEM. This is some seriously disingenuous bullshit where they go around and "talk" and "inspire" and give kids bad advice. Bad for the kids, that is.

    It'd be like someone who runs a massive Ears, Nose, and Throat subspecialty clinic visiting medical school students and telling them of how the field of ENT specialists is EXPLODING and THAT'S where all the opportunities are.

    Thanks, Timmy. But learning to talk to HUMANS is at least as important as learning to tell a PHONE to draw a glyph of a BIRD with no feet flying across a screen and striking a glyph of a PIG.

    "Coding" and making "apps" isn't any more important than learning ANY one or more of the jobs that require other critical skills people actually NEED to make REAL, ACTUAL things.

    So that all said, fuck that asshole. Or don't, he'd probably LIKE that.

  63. Re: Or, in creimer's case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought he died from heart failure.

    Link: Source

  64. Re:Rust is becoming the de facto language by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

    The new Rust programming language is quickly becoming the de facto language of international software dev teams.

    Soon to be the first result from a Google search for examples of wishful thinking. Thanks for your contribution.

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  65. K.S. KyoSUCKY you have zero... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject & last time I challenged you to show you've done better in the eyes of our /. peers & you RAN https://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10865087&cid=54826731/

    ("GOSH - why's that?" Oh, we KNOW why... lol!)

    * RoTfLmAo @ U blowhard (who started w/ me as usual but THIS TIME? I am letting YOU 'face the music' you FAKE NAME for your FAKE LIE OF A LIFE loser - eat it, lol!).

    APK

    P.S.=> K. S. Kyosuke = a BLOWHARD bullshitter "ne'er-do-well" do-nothing zero (& his next replies OR his many sockpuppet other accounts will PROVE that much as he evades it again, hahahaha)... apk

    1. Re:K.S. KyoSUCKY you have zero... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here we have an example of someone that knows a programming language, but never learned to communicate with English. Do we really want more APKs Mr. Cook?

    2. Re:K.S. KyoSUCKY you have zero... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you can't determine the meaning of phrases and words within the context of the framework in which they're used you have the problem, not the other way around.

  66. "language that everyone needs" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's the language ...

    There isn't a single, true language for computers: The plethora of programming languages has, I hope, deprived everyone of that delusion. Computers do however, depend on a single, true language: Mathematics, and yes, everyone should learn a good portion of it.

    Humans though, do not spend most of their time talking to machines, or talking about numbers, so a natural language was needed, that everyone could use. That language is currently English, which is spoken by more people and recognized by more countries, than any other. Recent predictions of China dominating international commerce and thus changing the international currency and international language, are premature.

    The native languages in some countries are so isolated and numerous, that government cannot exist without an imposed, common language. This problem repeats between dozens of countries and cultures. The need for a common and international language that expresses humans wants and emotions, is not going away.

  67. Talk is cheap by llamalad · · Score: 1

    This is all just trite "tech is great and important" cheerleader noiseâ" unless and until Apple bundles a modern version of Hypercard with OSX and IOS.

    How about it, Tim?

  68. That's what they say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    However, around the world the works of masters go unrecognized, their authors hungry, and students left uninformed of their ways. This is not unintentional: the masters' skill is impeded by nothing, so they obey no man. Given the role of software in today's society, no authority can both permit such a challenge and survive.

  69. Luddite-Apps!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only the most Luddite of luddite-apps can write appy app luddite-apps, not regular plain old apps of yestersecond.

    Luddite-Apps!!!

  70. Big middle finger for you by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    Another clown who wants plenty of code monkeys to select from.

  71. Comments by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    I'm sure that will have no impact on the final product.

    Of course not because all the best programmers avoid commenting their code.

    1. Re:Comments by DarkRookie · · Score: 1

      If it was hard to write it should be hard to read :P

      --
      The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
    2. Re:Comments by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

      Of course not because all the best programmers avoid commenting their code.

      Well, at any rate, many people who think of themselves as the best programmers avoid commenting their code.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    3. Re: Comments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do me a favor. Open up any library included with your language.... See those comments? Those were put there by a real software engineer. Learn to comment scrub.

  72. More bad coders incoming. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just because you can code doesn't mean you should. There are a lot of bad piano players out there in the world. Thankfully most of them never learn to play.

  73. Re:Rust is becoming the de facto language by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

    > it would be Java.

    I would have said Javascript since almost every device has a web browser these days it seems ... but who knows ?

  74. Or maybe... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or maybe they should learn (before coding and English) empathy, social skills, respect for the others, humbleness, tenacity--you know, the important things.

  75. Re:Rust is becoming the de facto language by jeremyp · · Score: 1

    I've been working for the European Commission recently. The group I was working with had people in it from at least ten nationalities.

    They're all coding in Java and Javascript.

    And communicating ideas to each other in English.

    --
    All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
  76. What Cook means is... by VeryFluffyBunny · · Score: 1

    ...that instead of spending taxpayer money on educating people, we should be spending it on training them with a very narrow skills-set that may well be becoming obsolete, at least in the US, by the time they graduate.

    --
    Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
  77. This is true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I work with people that can speak english at "order food at McDonald's" successfully but code well enough that that problem doesn't really matter.

    1. Re:This is true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why are you being positive on Slashdot? lol, but it's nice to see something positive.

  78. no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple CEO cares more about finding employees then educating children. According to Apple CEO "Learn programming or you are worthless"

  79. Re:Rust is becoming the de facto language by Darinbob · · Score: 1

    Naw, 8051 assembler if you want to go for nearly universal. Counting number of devices using 8051, it completely overwhelms Java. The drawback is that it's more confusing than German verbs.

  80. Which computer language? by Darkness+Of+Course · · Score: 1

    If programming is the second language then why are they teaching python?
    It would it be nice if the language doesn't incite flame wars re the choice of the day.

    For that matter, WTH have the universities been doing teaching with Java?

    If the goal is to produce more bad programming to enable the sale of more computers to enable the melting of more sand that's all fine. But past that easily 90% of the population would be better off without it.

  81. English is *MORE* important to me ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I am a non-English speaker

    I learned how to code because I learned English first, before I learned how to code

    Almost all the books, references, tips and tweaks available online about coding are in English. If I were to *NOT* know English it would be a tremendous disadvantage to me in my pursuit of learning how to code

    Cook is an idiot, a very stupid idiot !!

    1. Re:English is *MORE* important to me ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I learned to write code (BASIC, then assembly, then C) before there was an online(and online resources).

  82. Learn to weld or plumb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The world needs more welders and plumbers, not k0d3rz. k0d3rz are the new l4wy3rz.

  83. Does Tim Cook code? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Show us your code Tim!

    Oh, he meant for the rest of us, so that "they" can further treat us like shit!

    Well, I can code in a dozen languages, but choose to NOT advertise those features! Tim can ponder why..

    I'd rather reserve my brain power for outside corporate Dilbert-land, thank you very much!

  84. Coding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder why he said "coding" instead of 'programming'

  85. What's ridiculous about it? by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    if you run a software company it's perfectly sensible to want more employees so you can pay lower wages.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  86. There's nothing stupid about it by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    he just wants more coders so he doesn't have to pay so much for one ones he's got. The fact that the H1-Bs are driving any sane person out of IT in America doesn't help matters. Mix in the Xenophobia that has been growing in the US for the last few years and you've got a very small chance politicians might have to curtail work visas enough to impact Mr Cooks bottom line & stock options.

    This is nothing but a cynical attempt to get cheap labor. Nothing new here.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  87. Re:Rust is becoming the de facto language by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't recognize sarcasm do you?

  88. Re:Rust is becoming the de facto language by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm gonna go with 6501 being the foundational level of all international communication.

  89. Or how to get more programmers on the cheap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I doubt Cook really believes programming is more important than speaking a second language. What he is really trying to do is to motivate an entire generation of kids to learn programming so that it software engineering is decommoditized and Apple can lines its pockets even more with cheap but highly skilled labour.

  90. This is bizarrely unrealistic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coding requires an engineer's mind, essentially. The brutal reality is that this places the task beyond the majority of the population. This isn't like saying, "Learn to do your own car maintenance." The cutoff point for that is so low that it's not unreasonable to demand it of almost anyone.

    I will allow that the sentiment being expressed here is that anyone who is actually capable of the intuitive demands of programming languages should be taking the time to learn some.

  91. Let me know by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 2

    when XCode runs on an iPad.

    Otherwise, your $500 iPad that my niece's parents were forced to buy for her schooling is not fit for purpose.

  92. Low-wage Slaves needed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most documentation out there is in english. And the IT-Industrie needs more low-wage, low-education meat robots to program all the little stuff.

  93. Cheap labor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Need cheap labor Mr Cook ?

  94. Re:Coding not about language but logic and creativ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it sure is!
    coding is applied semiotics, not syntax or grammar, and one will also need english to do anything meaningful with it.
    he must be someone who got to his position by collating, not practicing logic and reasoning as a virtue, thus the peter-principle rules apple now.

  95. Re:Coding not about language but logic and creativ by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Exactly. Schools should be teaching students how to think, how to learn what they do not already know, and exposing them to diverse topics against which they can ply these skills.

    And how should THAT make them better workers, willing to work long hours for little pay without complaining? Our schools instill what they are supposed to: Conformity, subservience and following unquestioningly whatever the authority demands from you.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  96. makes no sense whatever by sad_ · · Score: 1

    if you are living in a non-native-english speaking country you first have to learn english because most and best books (or videos) are in english. so you would have to learn english first to to able to learn coding.
    if your native language is english, then you alreayd know english.

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
  97. Because France by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He was just pandering to French language chauvinism. Learning to code without learning English is pointless, because programmers' communities, literature etc. are all in the global language which is undisputably English. Or it would be pointless, if programmers all over the world wouldn't automatically acquire the English language skills they need.
    Also, everyone needs language. Everyone who wants to be part of a global society needs English. Not everyone needs to be able to program a computer in a strict symbolic calculus. At the forefront of computing are AI engines that learn their tasks from fuzzy, including natlang, input. Of course these (for the time being) still need to be programmed before they can accept fuzzy data, but please let them be programmed by experts with strong skills in algorithmic thinking, not by anyone. Programming is hard. Languages are so easy that a baby can learn them.

  98. Re: Rust is becoming the de facto language by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    A report from Forrester said that 97% of them are brilliant and one in six is a saint.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  99. It didn't keep him from becoming CEO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So I wanted to know if this dog eats his food and searched for Tim Cook's programming skills. The unanimous answer seems to be that Tim Cook has probably had some coding experience as an engineer, but he is not a programmer.

    Programming should be left to programmers, there's enough horrible code already. Human input always needs to be heavily sanitized, but if the input is in the form of instructions to a universal machine, sanitization is necessarily deficient. So it's better to let the input for most tasks be in English and make machines smart enough to handle that safely. And I'm saying "in English", not "in natlang", because for computers to learn hundreds of human languages is much harder than for most humans to learn English, which they do anyway.

  100. Seeking examples of Tim Cook's code by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So what has Tim written himself?
    Do we know his programming style?
    What language(s) does he have code in production in?
    Eat your own dog food Tim.
    How about hiring a new CEO from India?
    Getting more idiots into programming won't help the quality of code, but it will push down the price of programmers.
    That is Tim's motive, after all.

  101. coding is like music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone can learn to play something on a piano. A very select few will go on to be professional musicians. Coding (a.k.a., programming, back in the day), works along the same lines. That the CEO of one of the largest tech companies in the world cannot grasp this analogy tells you everything you need to know about him and the people who didn't fire him for saying incredibly stupid things in public.

  102. By Neruos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    bad,

    Why humans moved forward in the universe.

    Language,
    Imagination,
    Creativity,
    Tools,

    and in that order. Coding is a tool, Big Business wants everyone to be able to code, so the price of coding codes down. Every CEO in a tech corp wants their coders like McDonald's wants fry cooks. Cheap and Plentiful. Thank you Capitalism!

  103. you are too stupid for words, literally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Code using what programming language ?
    Swift ?
    Whose keywords are english words ? And most of the documentation is in english ?

    The french should sue Apple for not releasing the programming language "Rapide" - where all the keywords are in french. And it understands the following:

    laisser a=quatre-vingt-dix-huit

    apparently according to you, the french are all complete morons. everyone else can handle foreign words, but not the stupid french

    1. Re:you are too stupid for words, literally by psergiu · · Score: 1

      Frenchmen spotted :)
      Your english is quite good.
      PS: https://everything2.com/title/...

      --
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  104. Re:Coding not about language but logic and creativ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He is not comparing them as languages, but as alternatives of how to spend time. As in, if you have time to study only programming or English which one should you study. And he doesn't say that one shouldn't study English, he uses English as an example of very important subject, which in his opinion is still less important than programming. All this information was in the summary.

  105. i would love more coders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i want to bring a programming text editor (like sublime) to the market. more coders equals more money for me! why are some other people here negative on this?

  106. Coding or English? Nope, French or English. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think that if they really want to help those students in questions, and if it actually comes down to selecting a spoken language over a programming language, the obvious answer would (however arrogant this comes across) be to take coding and English. English is still the common international language, it is also extremely helpful for coding, as there are so many more resources and support available than in French. So, if they really want to force a choice that doesn't need to be made, as the coders can clearly learn English and programming, cut out the least useful from the equation.

    Reality is that this is a mute point, no choice needs to be made.

  107. Machiavellianism is more important than Coding by NewYork · · Score: 1

    Machiavellianism (willingness to manipulate and deceive others), Narcissism (egotism and self-obsession), Psychopathy (lack of remorse and empathy), Sadism (pleasure in suffering of others) is more important than Coding in REAL world