[plt-scheme] Should computer programming be mandatory

Fair enough: I certainly didn't mean to suggest that the groups were  
mutually exclusive!

Getting back to the topic of this thread (or at least I hope so): my  
two basic points were

1) It's not enough to just teach "programming", it's important that  
students be exposed to computing at a deeper level.

and

2) The marketplace is currently providing something of a disincentive  
for studying theory (or even Scheme). This won't change until the  
people making hiring decisions are persuaded that it is in their  
interest to hire people with a good grounding in theory, even at the  
expense of some specialist knowledge.

Unfortunately, it's hard to see this happening in a world dominated  
by contracting, and especially fixed cost contracts.


"In the human mind, one-sidedness has
always been the rule and many-sidedness the
  exception. Hence, even in revolutions of
thought, one part of the truth usually sets while
  another rises."
--John Stuart Mill

http://www.gwoodhouse.com
http://GregWoodhouse.ImageKind.com





On Oct 17, 2008, at 1:44 PM, Grant Rettke wrote:

> On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 3:03 PM, Woodhouse Gregory
> <gregory.woodhouse at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> A theme that comes up time and again is that there are a few  
>> developers
>> whose code always seems to work and who are able to solve problems  
>> that
>> would lead most everyone else to throw up their hands and say "it's
>> impossible". Oddly, these are not the same developers as those  
>> that know
>> Java EE backwards and forwards and seemingly can do anything with  
>> WebLogic
>> or Oracle.
>
> What about developers who code well that are also JEE experts?!

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