jc@sdcsvax.UUCP (John Cornelius) (10/27/84)
First, you really do have to learn something well in order to be able to pursue the sport further. Unix and C are sufficiently unconstrained environments to allow you explore the subtleties of operating systems and languages in general. Most university graduates come out of school as flaming adherants to (and missionaries for) the operating system they used in school. Unix is probably less polarizing in that regard than is, say, UCSD Pascal or most of the other possibilities. Second, make no mistake about the purpose of a University. While it ain't Coleman College it is still a trade school albeit one with a little more depth and class. This philosophy extends even to graduate school and, for the brightest, to postdoctoral and faculty positions. The objective, in labor jargon, is to create a master whatever (in this case a master scientist). Undergraduate work is analogous to being a hod carrier. Graduate student work is not unlike being an apprentice; you are expected to be productive and to learn at the same time. Post PhD work is journeyman work. A very few of us actually become masters at the trade, irrespective of our own opinions about ourselves. I do not know where you find yourself in this ladder of accomplishment and expertise but from your comments I would guess that you're still carrying hod. For my own part, I am not trying to be a snob, only realistic. I am probably a good journeyman at this point so I'm certainly not trying to insult anybody. I wish you the best of luck in your pursuits. John Cornelius Western Scientific