MCL9337@TAMVENUS.BITNET (04/09/88)
Mr. agate!web4d.berkeley.edu!laba-4an@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU We are aware that it is possible to be taught languages in shools. The point we wished to bring forth was that it is possible to go farther on your own than most courses will take you. Granted these courses are enough for some people, but not for those who want to "know it all and more." I not only referred to languages, but the application of these to specific hardware. The Apple // owner is not going to find out what to use his memory locations for in a class. Nor will he probably find out what the format of data is on his Apple disks. The original discussion stemmed from the knowledge gained by pirates while they are practicing their beloved software cracking. You learn stuff you NEVER see in a class about your computer with this. Of course, cracking isn't the best way! I've got books coming out the ears! I've discovered that if I really want to learn something, it's best to get the book and teach myself. The problem with school courses is that that takes a long time. Sometimes, I want to know something THEN AND THERE! It's a good way to get your GPR up. I taught myself Pascal (finally) last Spri err... Spring. Now I'm taking a required 4-hour Pascal course. Easy A. No complaints here! mcl9337@tamvenus.bitnet
mw22+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Alan Wertheim) (04/14/88)
Re: "Granted these courses are enough for some people, but not for those who want to 'know it all and more.'" No way. Here are a few trivial things that I've learned in college that I probably would not have been able to pick up by buying a book and sitting down in front of my Apple: 1.) Assembly language with true parameter passign and recursion 2.) How to write a compiler 3.) How to prove that a program will terminate; how to prove that a program is correct And in semesters to come: 1.) How to write timing-critical code like RWTS 2.) How to write an operating system 3.) How to manage more than one process running on the same machine at the same time OK. So you won't learn that CALL 42350 will catalog a disk under DOS 3.3 in college, but I would think that anyone with a Computer Science or Computer Engineering degree has more useful knowledge and experience with computers than any hacker. Michael Wertheim Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA Arpa: mw22@andrew.cmu.edu Bitnet: mw22%andrew@cmccvb