Richard Fateman
12/27/2015 3:54:00 PM
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Re: oh, 15% default for tip. was Learning Lisp: Now Stumped.
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 2015 07:48:39 -0800
From: Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu>
Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server
Newsgroups: sci.math.symbolic
References: <n5mm1u$qhk$2@speranza.aioe.org>
<87poxtf1gr.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com>
<567F15AD.7080201@cs.berkeley.edu> <m28u4g3gdl.fsf@tapoueh.org>
<567F33F2.5000809@cs.berkeley.edu> <m2ziww17mi.fsf@tapoueh.org>
On 12/27/2015 2:57 AM, Dimitri Fontaine wrote:
> Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> writes:
>> Does learning programming language X now mean
>> "Learning how all the elaborate widgets in some web site
>> conspire to make it possible to type a program in language X into a window."
>> ?? Or worse,
>> "Learning how to build a web site in language X"?
>
> You're right that my answer was not about learning lisp, but learning
> how to program something useful to its developer and user.
>
> How do you get people interested into learning a programming language
> and use tools that are totally disconnected to what they can use and
> identify with computing nowadays? (tablets, smart phones, drones, you
> name it).
>
> I wish I had an answerâ?¦
>
It used to be that we would see mothers and fathers arrive at
the university and say that their son, little Johnnie was really
interested in computers and they wanted him to study computer science.
What evidence did they have? He had a really high score on PacMan.
Will little Johnnie be a good computer science student? His score
on PacMac is not much of an indication. True, it may be
helpful for a computer programmer to be obsessive and unsocial,
maybe "on the [Autism] spectrum". But not by much. Unless little
Johnnie also got great scores on College Boards and grades, he wouldn't
get to major in computer science.
Frankly, if there is no compelling reason (their curiosity, or it is
needed to get a job), why do we need to get them interested? The
world does not need more unskilled, untalented, unwilling computer
programmers. The world of commercial IT seems to have plenty
of them already.