[geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

[der Mouse]

>>> You can graduate with a BS in Computer Science from a *reputable*
>>> school nowadays, having *never programmed a single line of code*.
>> Nothing wrong with that.  Computer science has about as much to do
>> with programming as knowing the chemistry of combustion does with
>> building an internal combustion engine.
> I would suggest that the analogy should be more that computer science
> has to do with programming as knowing the chemistry of combustion has
> to do with *designing* an internal combustion engine.

I'd say that's a defensible point of view, but only if you consider
programming to include designing the software as well as coding it.

> That said, if you're designing an internal combustion engine without
> having a fundamental (at least instinctive) knowledge of the
> chemistry of combustion, your engine is going to be shite.

True.  And, oddly enough, software written by people with no theory
clue is (almost?) invariably shite too.  (Many people have no training
but have self-acquired theoretical clue, complicating the picture.)

>> The real problem - to the extent that there is one - is people
>> confusing computer science with programming, designing software
>> systems, and/or sysadminning.
> Indeed.  At least in computer science classes, you are taught some
> things that are at lest *somewhat* useful when writing code.

Actually, some of the people who confuse CS with those other
disciplines are schools that purport to teach CS, meaning that
sometimes, you can study what the school calls CS and actually end up
getting programming or software design (or, rarely, sysadmin).

> Computer science classes teach *nothing* that is useful for good
> practice in system administration.

I'd disagree.  The connection is more tenuous, but it's not totally
absent.  Complexity theory and queueing theory are the first two
theroetical things that come to mind as useful to a sysadmin.  (Not as
useful as they are to a programmer; that's why I call the connection
"more tenuous".)

> But that doesn't stop every headhunter on the planet from listing job
> openings in system administration requiring a bachelor's degree in
> computer science.  *sigh*

It's closer than any other degree available, at least for now.
Especially in view of all the schools teaching programming or other
disciplines and calling them CS.  (I understand both of these are
changing, and about time, too.)

/~\ The ASCII				der Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
 X  Against HTML	       mouse at rodents.montreal.qc.ca
/ \ Email!	     7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B