Re: FSF : lackeys of their corporate masters

[Sam Holden]

On Thu, 06 May 2004 18:00:19 -0700, Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu> wrote:
> Snuffelluffogus <darkred@myway.com> writes:
> 
>> I have seen much code written by self-taught programmers.  It most
>> sucks.
> 
> I hate to break this to you, but most people with CS degrees are still
> self-taught programmers.  We do a very poor job of actually teaching
> programming (as opposed to theory).

Which is OK, since CS is not programming.

Then again I'm one of those loons who thinks first year CS shouldn't
involve learning *any* programming language - and hence shouldn't 
involve programming...

I actually agree with Snuffelluffogus on this point, programming is
something for which one is trained. CS is something for which one
is educated. There's a massive difference between the two approaches.

Of course CS people need to learn programming at some point (though
I know many who are brilliant at CS but not so hot at programming) 
since it is part of the language they use when communicating with
others and a very useful tool for their experiments.

I also agree that corporations have too many benefits and not enough
responsibilities at the moment, but off-shoring work is not one of the
things I think is evil. Especially not off-shoring "middle class" jobs
which seems to have all the benefits of off-shoring (increasing 
global utility) without some of the costs (sweat-shops that approach
slavery, government "gifting" of personal property to foreign
corporations, etc.).

-- 
Sam Holden