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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!allyn
From: allyn@sdcsvax.UUCP (Allyn Fratkin)
Newsgroups: net.college
Subject: Re: Where have all the hackers gone?
Message-ID: <521@sdcsvax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 9-Dec-84 13:10:37 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.521
Posted: Sun Dec  9 13:10:37 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Dec-84 06:38:01 EST
References: <3138@utah-cs.UUCP>
Organization: U.C. San Diego
Lines: 39

In article <3138@utah-cs.UUCP>, Steve Davidson writes:
> 
> ... "weed out" courses designed to make 
> computer science as unpleasant as possible.  This ensures that only the 
> fittest students will survive, the rest being exiled to other majors or 
> other schools.  There is only one disturbing fact:  The fittest students 
> aren't neccessarily the best programmers. 
> 
>   Computer science departments around the country are systematically screening
> out the hackers.  The department I belong has very few undergraduate hacker
> types.  They are being replaced by normal looking, normal acting people who
> only want to make money.  They do their assignments on time, and seldom write
> anything that they aren't either getting credit for, or being paid for.  It's
> sickening.

I'm an undergraduate at UC San Diego, and I have seen this exile here also.
The "fittest students" are the ones with the best grades, not the ones that
are the best programmers.  In fact, there is not really a class in how to 
be a good programmer.  Sure, we have a data structures course.  So what?  When 
I took it, anyone that got the correct output on a prgram got full credit.  
It didn't matter if you did extra work handling special cases or did
the bare minimum to get by.  It didn't matter what your programs looked
like.  I'm afraid this is the problem at a fair number of schools.

We don't have it as bad as some schools.  All students (undergrads and grads)
can get computer 'literacy' accounts on Unix or VMS.  These are limited
accounts, but are enough to get some real work done (no hacking, though).  
We have full access to UUCP and USENET also.  Our computer center has 8 vaxen, 
3 running Unix, and two Pyramids.

I don't think CS departments are purposely screening out hackers.  I think
it's just happening due to convenience.  And resource scarcity.  And there's
very little we can do about it.
-- 
 From the virtual mind of Allyn Fratkin           sdcsvax!allyn@Nosc
                          UCSD Pascal Project     {ucbvax, decvax, ihnp4}
                          U.C. San Diego                    !sdcsvax!allyn

"Generally you don't see that kind of behavior in a major appliance."