Let Go, Standard Library From Community

[Jascha Wetzel]

> You really don't need a CS degree to do most IT jobs

100% agreed

i'll have to stand up for the CS majors here, though... ;)
i think, these (fairly typical) statements about CS majors are highly
dependent on the university. i attended exactly one lecture during the
first semester of my CS major that was supposed to teach you something
about programming. it was actually more an overview of programming
paradigms and languages types. that's it. no more programming taught for
the rest of the at least 4.5 years.
therefore, argumenting that you can learn programming on your own and
don't need to have a CS major doesn't make much sense to me, since you
have to learn it on your own even if you do have a CS major.

what i've learned instead:
- calculus (incl. numerical and differential)
- mathematical logic, knowledge representation
- designing, analysing and proving correctness of algorithms
- loads of algorithms and data structures
- linear algebra, 3d geometry (incl. curves and surfaces), rendering,
lighting simulation
- image analysis, compression, etc. (incl. fourier analysis, btw)
- some machine vision, pattern recognition
- language theory, compiler construction and optimization
- processor and operating system concepts
- analog and digital electronics basics

i don't regret having spent time with any of this.
what i regret not having taken classes in is cryptography. i hope i'll
find the time to make up for that...

Bill Baxter wrote:
> Walter Bright wrote:
>> Chris Nicholson-Sauls wrote:
>>> I tend to tell people that all forms of art seemingly arise from some
>>> form of science. Programming just happens to be an artform still
>>> closely linked to its base science.  And our own Walter -- if I
>>> recall right -- is a prime example of a major developer whose
>>> background is in something else.  I'm pretty sure those airplanes
>>> didn't require new compilers.
>>
>> My training is as a mechanical engineer, with an emphasis on jet
>> engines. I was fortunate enough to attend a university (Caltech) that
>> thoroughly believed that all their sci/eng majors should be well
>> grounded in a broad range of fields, and as I've gotten older and
>> wiser I see the value in it now.
>>
>> Caltech requires of all its graduates:
>>
>> o    3 years of calculus
>> o    2 years physics
>> o    1 year chemistry
>>
>> among other courses.
> 
> If all you know is CS, then I think you're restricting the kind of work
> you can do.  It's not too tough to figure out how to be a competent
> programmer coming from a hard science or engineering discipline.  But
> going the other way is pretty much impossible.  My tack was to take a
> lot of CS courses, because they were fun and relatively easy, but go
> with EE as the major.  It was much more difficult, but I'm glad I did it
> that way.  The decent grounding in calculus, linear algebra, Fourier
> analysis etc that I got from that has allowed me to do things I never
> would have been able to consider had I just gotten the CS education.
> 
> I've heard that CS departments at schools these days are suffering from
> a big drop in the number of majors.  But that seems to me to be as it
> should be.  The IT boom brought on a lot of silliness.  You really don't
> need a CS degree to do most IT jobs.  Yes, *everybody* needs to know how
> work with computers these days to varying degrees.  Just like everyone
> needs math to varying degrees.  But that doesn't mean there need to be a
> lot of math majors, or CS majors.   Almost everyone takes a class or two
> from the math department, but very few major in it.  Likewise, pretty
> much everyone these days should have a class or two from the CS dept,
> but we don't really need that many majors.
> 
> --bb