[Edu-sig] Accessibility to non CS types?

[Peter Bowyer]

At 22:23 26/05/2006, Ian Bicking wrote:
> > Not many scientists and engineers learn C or sh any more.  ABC's
> > developers had the right idea.
>
>Yes, but they learn C++ and Java and things like that.

You wish.  As part of my project I did a brief survey of what physics 
departments used to teach programming (research that didn't make it 
into the final report due to space).  Most offered only an 
introductory course, often less than 1 lab a week for 10 weeks.  C 
was still popular (as was Fortran) but I argue that due to the lack 
of time the scientists and engineers don't learn these languages, 
they learn enough to complete the exercises to finish the 
course.  Not because they're inherantly lazy, but because there's way 
too much material to cover in the pitifully small time allocated.

I wish it were different, but despite computational work being one of 
the important methods of research in physics, programming is not seen 
as a key part of a physics degree.  And I thorougly concur with the 
comment about it being taught by the previous generation: many who 
were in charge of teaching or planning the computer modules had been 
using computers in the 1960's - which doesn't make it wrong, but 
provides a different outlook on today's systems.

Peter