"before the big bang" isn't so hard to comprehend, even in the absence of any contemporary physics you may or may not understand.
What integer comes *before* the number zero? While this is meaningless if you are observing some tangible item like apples, if you're observing the state of any oscillating/cyclic system it's perfectly acceptable. And anyone trained in the sciences should be able to tell you that in cyclic systems, the sign'dness of any perceptible variable of any system state is relative to your point of reference.
I find it quite elegant and physicist-like to suppose that the big bang as just one state, the beginning of one period if you please, of an oscillating system.
Parent is flaimbait? I disagree. He actually has a good point; a little rough around the edges, but very valid.
While it is possible for low-level programmers to program higher-level systems/interfaces, it's increasingly becoming less economically practical for them to do. So as software penetrates newer markets and further embeds itself within our lives, there has to be a transitional period wherein higher level programming enters into common knowledge for a much larger percentage of the workforce.
Other posters have mentioned how entry level CS classes help to weed out those without deep interest in the nitty-gritty of computation, which in some ways counters the article author's pessimistic viewpoint, but it remains important to remember that the real motivator of any sweeping college curriculum change isn't idealistic java-zealous CS professors; rather it is the industries that hire CS majors.
This article amounts to little more than feedback from a CS professor on what a traditional CS education means to him. IMHO it would be more productive to just say that the edge of this transition period has been made apparent by the introduction of java into the CS education (where else would you start??), and to address this, new majors need to be developed so that CS majors can concentrate on more intimate details of computing.
Slashdot Mirror
"before the big bang" isn't so hard to comprehend, even in the absence of any contemporary physics you may or may not understand.
What integer comes *before* the number zero? While this is meaningless if you are observing some tangible item like apples, if you're observing the state of any oscillating/cyclic system it's perfectly acceptable. And anyone trained in the sciences should be able to tell you that in cyclic systems, the sign'dness of any perceptible variable of any system state is relative to your point of reference.
I find it quite elegant and physicist-like to suppose that the big bang as just one state, the beginning of one period if you please, of an oscillating system.
"But with the released of version 5, PHP introduced..."
Any reasonable 10 year old word processor grammar check would catch this. Or Slashdot can just hire a 10 year old.
Parent is flaimbait? I disagree. He actually has a good point; a little rough around the edges, but very valid.
While it is possible for low-level programmers to program higher-level systems/interfaces, it's increasingly becoming less economically practical for them to do. So as software penetrates newer markets and further embeds itself within our lives, there has to be a transitional period wherein higher level programming enters into common knowledge for a much larger percentage of the workforce.
Other posters have mentioned how entry level CS classes help to weed out those without deep interest in the nitty-gritty of computation, which in some ways counters the article author's pessimistic viewpoint, but it remains important to remember that the real motivator of any sweeping college curriculum change isn't idealistic java-zealous CS professors; rather it is the industries that hire CS majors.
This article amounts to little more than feedback from a CS professor on what a traditional CS education means to him. IMHO it would be more productive to just say that the edge of this transition period has been made apparent by the introduction of java into the CS education (where else would you start??), and to address this, new majors need to be developed so that CS majors can concentrate on more intimate details of computing.