slimick@unix.cis.pitt.edu (John C Slimick) (07/24/90)
As a one-time faculty member of New Mexico Tech, from
whence John Shipman sends us his eloquent messages, I
would like to state that the way the practica began there
was at the request of a former dean ("Sammy Sandstone")
who picked up the idea on one of his trips to the Midwest,
and most likely from Northwestern or Chicago. At that
time we had just gotten SNOBOL II up and running, and it
seemed a good way to get people to use the language without
trying to place it in another 3-credit course. Thus, the first
practicum we did was in SNOBOL. During my time there we wanted
CS majors in the practica, but, since there was an abundance of bright grad
students (especially physics) we left the enrollment open.
I am now in the situation of starting practica again. There are
several good reasons for the one credit course:
-I refuse to give three hours credit to someone for
learning C after they have had two semesters of
Pascal;
-Some employers will not believe that you have had
a language unless it appears on the transcript
(especially true for FORTRAN for some unknown
reason);
-In my courses like Data Communications Software I
would like to be able to require C programming
ability on day 1, rather than spending the three
to five weeks that it typically takes me to get
most of the class up to speed;
-This satisfies the need for that species of CS student
who wants to add lots of languages ("sure, kid, take
all you want -- it just doesn't help you in required hours
and its one credit per language).
Currently we have scheduled practica in C and FORTRAN. The requirement
is the first two CS courses. I am contemplating additional ones in
VAX VMS DCL, Postscript, REXX, and other languages. All will be
one credit.
john slimick
university of pittsburgh at bradford
bradford pa
slimick@unix.cis.pitt.edu