ewp (10/22/82)
Requiring all EE/CS students at a university to own a personal
computer, because that is what they are there to study, seems
analogous to requiring all Mechanical Engineers to own a car.
It seems to me that the whole point of attending a university,
as opposed to attending a tech school, is to study the general
principles of a discipline, not one specific design. In CPU
design, for example, there are different designs based on
different trade-off decisions. If someone is only exposed
to one type of processor, they may know every detail of that
particular processor but would probably have trouble making new,
innovative designs. This is what I feel the difference is between
a hacker and a computer scientist.
A personal computer can be a useful tool, but I don't think forcing
them on students is a good way to utilize their capabilities. And
what about the person who aspires to be a solid state device type of
engineer? They are EE's but may have no desire to study networking.
Ed Pawlak
BTL - IW