I couldn't have said it better. With the time it takes a program to parse through that XML crap I could have written a binary to ascii converter to display my fuel efficient binary data nicely!
I'm all for standards, but I really don't like XML. I know, I know, I must be the only one. Maybe its my exposure to it, or maybe its what my company wants to do with it, but I'm just not a fan. For documentation at my company we use a mix of ASCII text files, Word files, or whatever the writer wants. My biggest beef with XML is that it is amazingly slow to parse (can you tell, I'm a programmer) and clunky (I hate all those tags). I think XML is a buzz word that caught on in the eyes of corporate management and they decided it sounded cool so they made everyone support it.
Personally, I like Latex. I just started to get into it, but its really easy to learn, and it converts into nice looking postscript, or PDF files. Its so easy to convert a plane text file into a latex file. Who needs this Microsoft crap anyway?
The difference, in my opinion, is in the non computer courses. As an engineer you take tons of physics and tons of math and all those other classes that we love to hate. Like it or not, you'll have an engineer's degree, which means you'll have all the hard classes. But you also take some pertty cool classes. My curiculum (at Milwaukee School of Engineering) was split down the middle with half going for software and half going to hardware. This was nice because our electives finished our choise. So don't think that you have to work with hardware if you're a computer engineer.
In addition to the above, you gain an advantage in programming if you know how the hardware works. That fact has helped me many times.
There were some other comments in this thread about making sure you take C/C++/Java and I can't second that enough. I would also try to get some assembly just to know what that's all about. A software design class wouldn't hurt because most larger companies will ask if you know UML.
The engineering path is definetly the harder one. Another side bonus to picking the engineering degree is that if you flunk out you can always switch to Computer Science.:)
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We should send in Ms. Piggy!
Soon we'll have "Muppets Take Afghanistan"!!!!
I couldn't have said it better. With the time it takes a program to parse through that XML crap I could have written a binary to ascii converter to display my fuel efficient binary data nicely!
I'm all for standards, but I really don't like XML. I know, I know, I must be the only one. Maybe its my exposure to it, or maybe its what my company wants to do with it, but I'm just not a fan. For documentation at my company we use a mix of ASCII text files, Word files, or whatever the writer wants. My biggest beef with XML is that it is amazingly slow to parse (can you tell, I'm a programmer) and clunky (I hate all those tags). I think XML is a buzz word that caught on in the eyes of corporate management and they decided it sounded cool so they made everyone support it.
Personally, I like Latex. I just started to get into it, but its really easy to learn, and it converts into nice looking postscript, or PDF files. Its so easy to convert a plane text file into a latex file. Who needs this Microsoft crap anyway?
From the eyes of a computer engineer...
:)
The difference, in my opinion, is in the non computer courses. As an engineer you take tons of physics and tons of math and all those other classes that we love to hate. Like it or not, you'll have an engineer's degree, which means you'll have all the hard classes. But you also take some pertty cool classes. My curiculum (at Milwaukee School of Engineering) was split down the middle with half going for software and half going to hardware. This was nice because our electives finished our choise. So don't think that you have to work with hardware if you're a computer engineer.
In addition to the above, you gain an advantage in programming if you know how the hardware works. That fact has helped me many times.
There were some other comments in this thread about making sure you take C/C++/Java and I can't second that enough. I would also try to get some assembly just to know what that's all about. A software design class wouldn't hurt because most larger companies will ask if you know UML.
The engineering path is definetly the harder one. Another side bonus to picking the engineering degree is that if you flunk out you can always switch to Computer Science.
Just my two cents,
L8Knight Programmer