But if you keep up the good work you will one day go from
extern void *lecturer;
static const lecturer; volatile unsigned short lecturer; delete from schema.hr.employee
where employee.employee_type = 'Lecturer'
having rownum = cast(dbms_random.value(1,count(*)) as int)
Once an entire physics department was disbanded when their Dean's keyboard had a broken ctrl key.
Then on the monday, it was makefiles if i remember correctly, then open(), read(), close() and write(). Then linking (and new libc functions, like strcat) . A day to consolidate everything, including bash and git (a new small project every hour for 24 hours, you could of course wait until the end of the day to execute each of them). And then some recursivity and the 8 queen problem. Then a small weekend project, a sudoku solver (the hard part was to work with people you never met before tbh).
The 3rd week was more of the same: basic struct/enums exercises, then linked list the next day, maybe static and other keyword in-between. I used the Btree day to understand how linked list worked (and understand how did pointer incrementation and casting really work), and i don't remember the last day (i was probably still on linked lists). Then a big, 5-day project, and either you're in, or you're out.
I assure you, strings were not the hardest part. Not having any leaks was.
And then people rhetorically ask themselves why students coming from economically disadvantaged households are under-represented in this industry (one of the best paying industries in this time and age). Stuff like that has got to change.
Medicine is still better paid and better paid universally. Silicon valley is really the outlier here, most of Europe and the world programmers don't get paid that much in comparison.
In the end, it was mostly those that didn't get discouraged and socialized with the other students that would remain in the end.
I myself did not have any programming experience before going through that ordeal.
Those who have been subjected to such programs can also probably agree that the filtering of the first semester (and there is a filter, but again we think it's a fair one not dependent on prior programming experience or other such privilege) ends up normalizing everyone, for the benefit of everyone. For the people who started at 0, they're now Somewhere nearby everyone else, ready for the next (harder) material, and for people who started with some "advantages" they've discovered they... are also now Somewhere, not Somewhere Else ahead of everyone like they might have been at the very start. In these sorts of programs, people with prior experience find that they couldn't sleep through their classes and get A's like they might have pulled off in high school, their advantages were not actually that significant after all, and indeed some from-nothings can and do perform better than they.
For anyone who just wants access to the software industry's wealth, I'd encourage them to ignore college entirely. There may be a case-by-case basis to consider college, especially if you need economic relief now in the form of scholarships/grants/loans only accessible through the traditional college protocol, but in general, avoid.
(If you want something besides just access to the wealth, you have more considerations to make.)
I think the filter is more effective for finding those who can quickly adapt, learn, and grok a methodical mindset. Not necessary characteristics to be a programmer, but necessary characteristics to excel at programming.
If that sounds evil, imagine the grief, wasted money, time, frustration, and stress of letting people get 3-4 years into computer science and then dropping out because it's fucking hard.
So my second hardest classes were freshman year. 3rd year (micro-architecture and assembler)finally bested them.
Their parents can't afford a laptop? They can't afford an Internet connection? The kids don't have a good place to learn in their house? They don't have time?
Is programming affected more than other subjects like math, English/grammar, science, etc?
Also, I'd say "not having segfaults" is the hardest thing to get right when you're going through that.
I wouldn't want to use it my day job, but I'm glad that it was taught in university just to give the impression that string manipulation is not quite as straightforward as it's made to appear in other languages.
The early days of Swift also reminded me of this problem – strings get even more challenging when you begin to deal with unicode characters, etc.
Unfortunately most of those developers don't care much about efficiency and Python is out of the box inefficient compared to other high-level languages like Java [1] or C#. OO Java courses circulating in academia lack modern functional, and to be frank educational, concepts and must to be refreshed first.
I personally would recommend to start with Java and Maven because it's still faster than C# [2], open source, and has a proven track record in regards of stability and backwards compatibility. Plus quickly introduce Spring Framework and Lombok to reduce boiler plate code.
For advanced systems programming I suggest looking into Rust instead of C/C++.
And last but not least the use of IDE's should be encouraged and properly introduced, so aspiring developers are not overwhelmed by them and learn how to use them properly (e.g. refactoring, linting, dead code detection, ...). I recommend Eclipse with Darkest Theme DevStyle Plugin [3] for a modern look.
[1] https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...
[2] https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...
[3] https://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/darkest-dark-theme-d...
I also like the newfound interest in some FP languages, I for example had a mandatory Haskell course in first year — we did not take Monads in this course yet, but I think it is a great introduction for students for a different take from the more imperative world.
We've started from 0 with no assumption of any computer knowledge and first 2 years most courses were using Delphi (console only, no GUI stuff, basically it could just as well have been Turbo Pascal, some Linux enthusiasts used FPC instead of Delphi and it worked).
We all complained that we want C++ then, but I've learnt to appreciate Pascal later. After first few months we've known every nook and cranny and there was very little corner cases and gotchas. So basically we focused on algorithms and not on avoiding the traps language set for us.
Most people had no programming experience and after a few weeks they wrote correct programs no problem.
I doubt this would happen if we started with C++ as most people wanted, and I think it's better than Python as a starting language because it teaches about static typing and difference between compile- and run-time.
Sadly it's a dead language now.
I understand the predilection for Python but there are some parts of Python that are just... odd.
I used to think that everyone should be taught python first, because it lets you focus on the meat of computer science - algorithms, data manipulation, actually _doing_ something - but after helping my girlfriend out with some comp sci 101-104 projects, I really think Go, Java, or Rust should be everyone's first language. It's hard for someone new to the field to understand the nuances that come with python's corner cutting. You can work yourself into some weird corners because of how permissive the language is, where in a (strongly) typed language, the complier just says no.
I always feel a little iffy when people talk about Python like it's a language ideally suited to beginners.
Dynamic typing puts so much power in your hands to create expressive structures. But it requires discipline to use properly. It's a great trade off for me but I don't think it would be for beginners.
Could you share an example?
In Python, the weird stuff is generally easy to avoid/ignore until it's actually needed.
We started talking and basically we discovered what he was teaching really related for what I do for work so he asked me to become a "mentor" meaning a professional that helps students with their thesys.
In the meantime I went to talk during his class about product management as an engineer where basically I said "I'm an engineer like you, go and talk to customers, it's part of the job", plus extreme programming stuff etc...
After that there was a position open and this professor recommended me because I told him it was one of my goals to be a teacher as well.
And then from there I met the head of dept. He was happy with me being versatile, I usually handle C, database design or java.
But the usual stuff is go to the university you like an look for open positions.
I need to get confirmed every semester and apply again. Usually this job is done by people with a main job and sometimes it happens you don't have time in a semester.
20 years ago I was in the exact situation of one of your students, i.e. I was put in front with the C language in the first semester of the first year. I barely, barely passed, failed with glory a similar course in the second semester which I only passed (with an A, to put it in US university terms) a couple of years later after I had managed to learn Python by myself in the meantime.
Because if remove the basics of programming with something like Python, you can fully concentrate on the second course on low hardware stuff, how to use memory etc..which is really important for my students, them being Electrotechnical engineers.
Nowadays I find it extremely strange to think of bits and bytes when being confronted with strings.
That is something I have a hard time convey as a teacher. My problem is that I have done this so long that I have no idea what there is not to understand about loops ... it's such a simple thing. But my (undergrad biology) students regularly have a hard time groking the concept no matter what explanation I use.
int i = 0; //a
while(i < 10) //b
{
printf("%d\n"); //c
++i; //d
}
//a //b //d
for(int i = 0; i < 10; ++i)
{
printf("%d\n",i); //c
}