Re: [dev] I don't want to live on this planet anymore

From: Brandon Invergo <brandon_AT_invergo.net>
Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:03:45 +0100

> Except that we need to learn how to use the tools thst exist instead if
> implementing our own. You shouldn't need programing ability for something
> like this

Every programming assignment you'll receive has already been written
many times over before. The point isn't to create something novel.

When you learned to solve quadratic equations with the quadratic
formula, you weren't breaking new mathematical ground. But you had to
study it and apply it by hand; if you just used Matlab, a programmable
calculator, or any other pre-made tool and showed the result to your
teacher, you would have failed, and rightly so because you demonstrated
no evidence that you gained any conceptual understanding, which is the
whole point of school.

So something like 'paste' has been written a million times before...that's
not the point. The point was that *you* were supposed to implement it
for your own learning experience or just plain practice, even if it is
trivial and stupid; in that case you write it in 5 minutes and move on
with your life. But instead, you effectively just turned in someone
else's code.

If it were a job, yeah, that would be the correct solution, without a
doubt. If your aim is to go into IT and focus on using pre-made tools
for everything, great, I guess I can't argue. But if you're going into
computer science, I don't see the harm in doing a pointless little
programming exercise any more than spending time to study standard
mathematical procedures.
Received on Thu Nov 01 2012 - 00:03:45 CET