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From: cbspt002@abnjh.UUCP (Marc E. Kenig )
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: Re: Teaching programming - aaack
Message-ID: <697@abnjh.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 20-Jun-84 15:48:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: abnjh.697
Posted: Wed Jun 20 15:48:12 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Jun-84 07:44:34 EDT
References: <678@abnjh.UUCP>, <554@opus.UUCP>
Organization: ATTIS, NJ
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<(*RSET NIL)>
Dick Dunn (opus!rld) wrote:
>...[Teach programmers to think like computer scientists] and then we'll 
>never have enough programmers...

It has been my experience in (*yuch*) 'the computer and dp industry'
that many so-called coders have little or no circumspection or (to
rob from D. Knuth) art to what they are doing. By analogy any monkey
could be taught to solve differential equations or minimize circuits
by wrote.  However, to be genuinely creative requires background and a developed
ability to intuit an elegant solution. Else all you get is pretty shitty
code cranked out by somebody who doesn't care and doesn't appreciate the
overall quality and elegance (there's that word again!) of the program
or system that is developed. Which, I believe,  results in inefficiency and
in a need for more programmers which leads to a shortage of 'coders'.
Catch-22!

Oh no! I'm beginning to sound like Edgar Dijkstra!:-)
M. Kenig
...abnjh!cbspt002 (for another month or so...)