[plug] MS Curriculum at schools and TAFEs ...

[Simon Scott]

	I believe that no single language is 'the next big thing' or 'the
current big thing', and it is dangerous to claim that some language is. It
leads to people writing programs in languages that arent suited to the task,
just because they already know it....

	Each language has strengths and weaknesses. Similarly, human beings
are all different and have strengths and weaknesses. Some people like the
versatility of PERL (for example), while others think that its 'versatility'
is actually a weakness (causing unreadable spaghetti code) and prefer
python. Others like C++, someone else might hate it and prefer C. 

	Personally I know several languages, and for some reason I have
always found C difficult, and it has eluded me for years (something I am
only just starting to fix, by learning C and Xlib). Should I have given up
and coded Xlib via its LISP bindings? Ofcourse not, C is the language for
the job...

	No one language can claim to solve every problem. ADA was for years
described as the be-all and end-all of programming languages, and now it is
nothing more than a memory (unless you code PL/SQL :). You wouldnt write a
large scale financial system in C, and you wouldnt write a windowing system
in COBOL.  JAVA might be 'the current big thing', but thats only until it is
replace by next month's 'current big thing'

	Choose the language to suit the task, even if you have to learn it
from scratch, and you cant go wrong I reckon.





	From:	Peter Wright <pete at cygnus.uwa.edu.au> on 23-04-2001 01:20 PM
	Please respond to plug at plug.linux.org.au@SMTP at Exchange
	To:	plug at plug.linux.org.au@SMTP at Exchange
	cc:	 

	Subject:	Re: [plug] MS Curriculum at schools and TAFEs ...

	On Mon, Apr 23, 2001 at 12:19:32PM +0800, The Thought Assassin
wrote:
	> On Mon, 23 Apr 2001, Simon Scott wrote:
	[ snippety ]
	> > They are still claiming that 'Java is the next big thing' and
have been
	> > for 8 years. I still dont see it.
	> I do. From where I am standing (as a once and future commercial
	> programmer) it is the current big thing.

	Out of interest, what languages does UWA "teach" besides Java these
days?
	 From Ari's post, sounds like they still do Gofer in first year, but
then
	Java alone from then on. I spoke to a friend of mine who graduated
from UWA
	computer science last year and she made a comment to the effect that
Java
	is God and... "if you want to know C/C++, you have to teach it to
yourself."

	> The question is whether that is because the hype was right, or
because
	> the hype was convincing. My opinion is that we so desperately
needed to
	> get rid of the horrors of C++

	Ooooh, can we have a language war now? *bounces* Can we
canwecanwe???

	:)

	> that the first half-way decent replacement that garnered enough
hype was
	> destined to become the next big language.

	I think we need to hype Python a bit more then. :)

	> -Greg Mildenhall

	Pete.
	-- 
	http://cygnus.uwa.edu.au/~pete/

	--
	hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
	124. You begin conversations with, "Who is your internet service
provider?"



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