I don't usually take the time to write a comment on Slashdot stories but this one has hit home. I am a physics graduate student now here in the U.S. and I find it amazing that there is not computer programming course requirements. Now that is not completely true. We have a course called computational where the students are supposed to use a computer language to solve various physics situations. The course has a prerequisite of computer programming if the student is not competent, but I have never heard of a student actually taking the programming course. They just complain that the course is hard and get other people to help drag them though the course. Very aggravating to see that happen.
I agree with other posters that it does not matter which language is learned, but it is the technique that matters. One thing of importance though is the idea of object oriented coding. I have had to help people who where Fortran coders trying to write C++ code using an API that an experiment wrote (Go D0!) So I think that at least one semester should be dedicated to programming techniques and data structures and then an additional semester for programming tools and how to use the effectively. The productivity would go up pretty quick if these two classes were required.
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I don't usually take the time to write a comment on Slashdot stories but this one has hit home. I am a physics graduate student now here in the U.S. and I find it amazing that there is not computer programming course requirements. Now that is not completely true. We have a course called computational where the students are supposed to use a computer language to solve various physics situations. The course has a prerequisite of computer programming if the student is not competent, but I have never heard of a student actually taking the programming course. They just complain that the course is hard and get other people to help drag them though the course. Very aggravating to see that happen.
I agree with other posters that it does not matter which language is learned, but it is the technique that matters. One thing of importance though is the idea of object oriented coding. I have had to help people who where Fortran coders trying to write C++ code using an API that an experiment wrote (Go D0!) So I think that at least one semester should be dedicated to programming techniques and data structures and then an additional semester for programming tools and how to use the effectively. The productivity would go up pretty quick if these two classes were required.