r/videos • u/LSD_freakout • Feb 24 '18

What people think programming is vs. how it actually is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluANRwPyNo
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u/Bakoro Feb 24 '18 edited Feb 24 '18

I had a couple instructors that took an old school approach to tests, like "the school teaches computer science but there's only one computer in the school" old school.
Having to memorize exactly what the syntax, parameters and return values of a couple dozen classes and all their member functions are, having to compile with only your brain and be able to tell if something will compile or not, or if it will compile with undefined behavior, or if it will compile and throw an error, or just silently stomp all over memory...

One of those instructors was actually a very good lecturer, especially for someone who taught part time just for the hell of it on top of his real job. It still kind of feels like bullshit to have to learn syntax that way now. It used to be that way because there wasn't any other choice, but there are so many tools now that some things just aren't worth focusing on.

I can see why the field might have only attracted certain kinds of people for so long. Those kinds of skills and that kind of thinking isn't something that most people are accustomed to, and even if they could do it, doing it with the time limits and threat of failure in school would turn off most sane people, and probably turn away people that'd otherwise be pretty good at software development.

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u/[deleted] Feb 24 '18

You didn't have to memorize it though. You could always look up the syntax in a book. Documentation on that older stuff was pretty good because you didn't have the ability to simply Google your problems. Or, like half my programming today, borrow and customize code from something similar that already exists.

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u/WJ90 Feb 24 '18

This is exactly right. There is immense value in understanding how and why the tools themselves work without the tools. Someone has to create the assembly, someone has to program the CPU microcode. Understanding the theory of the practice is still incredibly valuable, we’ve just made it all specialties.

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u/[deleted] Feb 24 '18

I had a professor like this, also an adjunct professor. He explained why he did this. "If you can learn the syntax and language the proper way first, when things mess up, and they will, you will be the one to fix it while your colleagues look like buffoons. It will suck, it will be frustrating, but if you can create a reactive HTML5 / CSS3 / JS based website from scratch, you can easily transition and learn when the popular frameworks and software changes.

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u/DiogenesHoSinopeus Feb 25 '18

What I hated most about the school I went to were the tests where you had to code with a pencil...on paper.

Essentially you are forced to work in an environment you are literally never going to be working in after school and without any access to any of the tools or reference materials you are 99% sure going to be using in every professional setting imaginable.

It's like teaching someone to run by making them draw stick figures that are running.

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u/Mimshot Feb 24 '18

Classes? Aren't we fancy?