[gameprogrammer] Re: Game university..........

One language to rule them all. One language to blind them. One language to
bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

There is a horrible trend in computer science schools to use and teach only
one language during a students undergraduate career. If I had the power I
would take every one of the professors who willingly participate in such a
program, tie them to a tree, strip off their shirts and give them 20 lashes
with a cat 'o 9 tails.  I am not kidding. What they are doing is a criminal
act that permanently harms their students.

OTOH, I would reduce the punishment if they taught a language like Turning,
Lisp, or Scheme. At least those can be claimed to be valid languages for
teaching computer science. There are languages, such a visual basic for
witch the punishment should be hanging. Fortunately, I do not know a school
where the faculty are that perverse.

If you went to such a school you should demand your money back on the basis
that your education was, at least in part, a fraud. A computer science
school that uses only one language is like a martial arts school that has
only one kata.

There is one thing worse for students than going to those schools. It is
walking into a school thinking you already know what you need to learn. I
tell you true, if you think you know exactly what you need to learn you are
fooling yourself. How many people think they need to learn theoretical
computer science to write games? Finite automata theory is used all over the
place in games. Funny thing is how many people I've met who use it, think
they invented it, and don't know the real name.

I had the good fortune to go to a school where it was common for each weekly
assignment to be in a different language. Professors had no fear of
introducing a new language for each class. I used one language that was
never implemented and never intended to be implemented. They also required
that you take 10 quarter hours of approved classes in an area where you
could apply your computer science training. Most took math or physics, many
took art and music, I did mine in creative writing. It was then (we're
talking 1970s) and still is a top computer graphics school. Unfortunately, I
under stand the curriculum has been pretty badly watered down since then.

Yeah, the good old University of Utah College of Computing. When I went back
as a grad student I helped teach a one year class in which the final project
was to write a Lisp interpreter in C. When I took the same class as an
undergrad we wrote an emulator for a 1950s tube based decimal computer in
the high level microcode of the B1800. If I were 18 and looking for a school
I think I would still go there. Notice that the name of the school does not
contain the words "computer science". They focus on applications of
Computing. Computer science is a branch of applied mathematics. Computing is
really an engineering discipline related to computer science the same way
mechanical and elecrtrical engineering are related to physics.

Ok, enough... from me on this topic. I am just so disgusted with what I see
happening to computer education.

Bob Pendleton


On Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 1:07 AM, Robbert de Groot <zekaric@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
> I'm not putting any weight behind any University in Ontario or even Canada.
>  The known older and more respected Universities don't really have such a
> narrow focused curriculum.  ALGOMA must be a new University because this is
> the first time I've heard of that University.
>
> I have talked with a person or two who have taught at one or two smaller
> universities in Ontario (University of Windsor comes to mind if I recall
> correctly) and they did not have anything good to say about the programs
> offered there.  Stating that the paper you get isn't really worth much.  So
> be careful and seriously hunt for people who have gone there before you make
> a decision.
>
> Unfortunately I can't really help out in advising you there.  I didn't go
> there.  I went to UofT (Toronto) and their computer science program is more
> general and academic in nature.  I don't know if they still do but they used
> to favour teaching with a language they developed in house (TURING and OOT,
> Object Oriented Turing.)  Which really annoyed me because it was not
> applicable to anything used in industry.  I had to pretty much teach myself
> 'C' programming which IMO they didn't do enough to teach.
>
> But then most old reputed schools don't really prepare you for industry.
>
> Robbert de Groot
>
>
> > From: Gopee Krishnan <krishwarier87@xxxxxxxxx>
> >
> >              Have anyone heard of ALGOMA
> > UNIVERSITY, Ontario ,Canada. They are providing MSc.
> > Computer Games Technology. They says they are providing
> > placements.... EA, Rockstars...........
>
>
>
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-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------
+ Bob Pendleton: writer and programmer
+ email: Bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
+ web: www.TheGrumpyProgrammer.com

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