Engineer’s Attempt at Writing

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/11070_3761921_2

I read an interesting article today while waiting for some code to compile. The article discusses Professor Dewar’s view on Java in the current CS curriculum. Professor Dewar is unhappy about Java and its vast array of predefined classes that students can readily used. He thinks most students do not need really need to understand data structures and software engineering because they can easily create a program by calling the various classes that are already defined in Java. Then the article goes on to talk about some solutions that Dewar is proposing and the article also brought up some counter points such as code re-use in the real world.

I am not sure how easy it is to implement some of the proposed solutions nor have I worked long enough to really understand how code re-use works in reality. However, I want to give my 2 cents about the use of Java in CS curriculum.

One of the hardest class I took was CS61B at Berkeley, and every programming assignment and project was done using Java. Many of my classmates can verify that the class was not easy and a lot of materials were taught. I am not sure how much of it I actually learned . I remember trying to write a quad-tree in Java and it was a pain in the butt to do. I think I even had trouble getting it to compile in Java. Now imagine writing the data structure in C or C++, and having to worry about pointers and why segmentation faults are happening. Java allows us to do the assignment and put all of my focus on understanding the data structure and implementing it without worrying about other issues that may go wrong.

I am not saying that Java is good or bad, but it fits well with the class. I think what it is needed is a well defined curriculum and whichever language is used is not that important. If you are teaching about data structures, assign some problem where the students actually have to implement the data structure. Suppose you are trying to teach the concepts of hash tables and the student is asked to implement it. Now, does it really matter whether the student uses the link list class in Java or write his own link list for the chaining part of the hash table (I think that is what it is called)? I think it is more important for the student to understand that the hash function should be uniform and collision should be avoided.

I am sure many people have different views on this, but to me a good CS curriculum is a carefully planned out curriculum and has little dependence on what programming language is used in the class.
Personally I hate Java; it may have something to do with my experience in the CS class I took.

I hate these words with a passion. I always get stumbled on them when doing sentence correction. I have looked online on the different rules governing how these words are used. I think I understand the rules, but who can really say that they understand something until they have tried it. Sometimes, I wonder why English is such a weird language with all these rules. For whom were these rules written for?

These rules are like mazes that are difficult to navigate. However, as someone who is preparing for sentence correction questions, I should be more careful when I see these words.

Visit here for an explanation of As vs Like.

and here for an explanation of Who vs Whom.

I am not sure what happened to me exactly, but I’ve found myself to be more demanding than before. Recently, I was at work and I asked someone to help me do something. Previously, I would have just waited until he tells me that it is done. But now, I will get upset if it is not done in a timely matter. I wonder if certain people from grad. school had a hand in making me the way I am now?

I went gliding in a sailplane last weekend and it was amazing. We soar through the sky in a sailplane. When the tow plane dropped the line, I was scared because the sailplane dipped slightly and I thought for sure that the plane was going to crash down. Luckily for me, it didn’t and the pilot took me through the clouds and I had a magnificent view of the western part of the Williamette Valley. I signed up to take a couple of lessons to learn how to fly, and if those lessons go well, then I will try to get a license to fly a sailplane.