Re: customization

["Kenneth W. Flynn" <flynnk@astro.umd.edu>]

At 10:11 PM 10/30/99 +0300, you wrote:
> > Yes the code is awful.  None of the computer science courses I took
> > ever really required you to modify someone else's code.
>
>Here at Tampere University of Technology, Finland, we have courses
>that require team work, so you need to make sense out of other
>people's code.

Well, I took many of those same courses with Mr. Payne, and I have to 
second his thoughts.  We had team projects, but we tended to work with 
others who actually had a clue (in particular, I tended to work with 
Dennis...  he has some small measure of clue.  :) ).  When you are under 
time pressure to get something done, and are graded for it, that is very 
different then the real world of painful coding.

I've also worked in teams with some folks with less of a clue.  And so have 
you, Dennis, remember OOP?  But even then, we had a "if there bit works, 
leave it alone" philosophy...

> > I wonder if maybe computer science courses should keep a collection
> > of poor designed buggy just to train students.
>
>Why should they - there's plenty of it available in the internet.
>Undoubtedly xwpe would make a fine example. :)

Yeah, but something they might actually be able to get through in a year or 
two would be nice....  :)

Kenn
(Who really should _update_ the FAQ.)


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Kenneth W. Flynn              | flynnk@astro.umd.edu
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