Fat Libraries vs. Programming Skills?

[Robert Fraser]

Manfred Nowak wrote:
> Fat Libraries vs. Programming Skills?
> 
> http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/2008/01/0801dewarschonberg.html
> 
> -manfred

As a current CS undergrad, I can say that I learned 90% of what I know 
about PROGRAMMING outside of class (either on an internship, an 
open-source project, or just messing around and being nerdy), and the 
other 10% from two of my classes (one high school AP class that focused 
on data structures, and one class on shell scripting and practical 
computer skills).

I think Java isn't necessarily a bad teaching tool for the reasons they 
mention, but I think a lower-level imperative language should come 
first. Java should be introduced after Smalltalk or something to show 
many of the advantages of safe, happy, VM programming and why 
object-oriented programming leads to good software design.