Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site watcgl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!watcgl!dmmartindale
From: dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale)
Newsgroups: net.micro,net.research,net.cse
Subject: Re: First Summary of PC's in Education Survey
Message-ID: <2262@watcgl.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 17-Mar-84 04:59:30 EST
Article-I.D.: watcgl.2262
Posted: Sat Mar 17 04:59:30 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Mar-84 07:05:39 EST
References: <3638@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 23

Could someone explain the background for the debate at U of T?
Why is someone choosing a "standard computing environment"?

At Waterloo, for reference, the computing environment seems much more
varied than at UofT.  The lower-year courses are taught on Commodore
PETs upgraded by the addition of 6809's, IBM PC's, IBM 4300's running
VM/CMS, PDP11's and IBM Series/1's running systems which allow editing
of source and then submission of batch jobs on the 4300's, and probably
something I've forgotten.  Upper year courses are taught on the 4300's
again, VAXes, a Honeywell DPS8 machine, and some micros used for
specialized things.  There is no master plan behind all of this
(that I can see, anyway) - the current collection of hardware is due
to people's perceptions of needs over the years, various people's
experiments, and other random factors.  And it will change continuously
as time goes on.  It may be disorganized, but it's reasonably flexible.
For example, someone might decide that the PETs are no longer adequate
for the courses which use them.  Well, they've served us for several
years, and there are only a couple of dozen of them, so replacing them
with something else wouldn't be all that painful.  (providing that the
money could be found at all).

Isn't picking one single standard "instructional computer" putting
too many eggs in one basket?