Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 Fluke 1/4/84; site fluke.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!houxm!houxz!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!fluke!kurt From: kurt@fluke.UUCP (Kurt Guntheroth) Newsgroups: net.lang Subject: Professionalizing Programmers, Going Off-line Message-ID: <1044@vax2.fluke.UUCP> Date: Mon, 4-Jun-84 12:39:13 EDT Article-I.D.: vax2.1044 Posted: Mon Jun 4 12:39:13 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 6-Jun-84 06:48:02 EDT Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Everett, WA Lines: 38 . I have always harbored the secret feeling that learning computing in an online environment is dangerous. I cite the following 'evidence'. 1. If you have to prepare your program off-line (worse yet on punch cards), you tend to think out the whole program in advance, because going back and forth from the punch (or whatever input device) to the computer is tedious, input devices are typically scarce, the wait for output is also tedious. By contrast, an on-line environment encourages incremental development a.k.a. programming at the keyboard. This is obviously more comfortable and friendly, but leads to laziness. You let the computer find all your bugs by compiling/running the program a large number of tines. Not only does this waste machine cycles (too bad) but it leads to reliance on debugging to verify the correct operation of the program. This is quite dangerous. It would be better to rely on designing correctness in. 2. The hassle of punching programs off-line causes you to look carefully at your program after each run, to correct all possible bugs. This kind of introspection also improves the quality of code and reduces the number of runs. 3. You need to know a lot less of the operating system in systems that make you program off-line. Typically a few fixed lines of JCL will get you through your whole learning experience. You concentrate on programming, not on learning stupid details of the OS. I learned to program using punched cards. By the time I was a teaching assistant, we had on-line systems. Now I am in industry and of course we are on line. I would never trade my nice VT100 and unix for an 029 and NOS/BE, but I am not a bit sorry I learned on an off-line system. I hope educators will consider off-line systems for teaching. -- Kurt Guntheroth John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. {uw-beaver,decvax!microsof,ucbvax!lbl-csam,allegra,ssc-vax}!fluke!kurt