Why aren't we all speaking LISP now?

[Andrew Dalke]

Laura Creighton wrote:
> What sort of teaching did the rest of you that took computer
> science courses get?

I learned Basic on my own followed by Pascal in high school.
That was taught because the AP tests (which can give college
credit or placement for high school work) require Pascal.

Intro college courses were Pascal I and Pascal II.  (My
AP test gave me credit for Pascal I.)  After Pascal I, people
usually took a C/assembly course because that was a
prerequisite for many of the more applied courses.

Here's what I remember about the classes and languages used:

  Data structures - Lectures were all math and drawings,
       assignments were in Pascal because that's what the
       intro course taught (and because that's what the
       TA knew)

  Graphics - assignments could be done in Pascal, C or C++
       Only language used in lectures was the Pascal-like
       one needed to read Foley&van Dam.  The only graphics
       primitives we were allowed were "draw point" and
       "draw character"

  Operating Systems - C (used Tannenbaum's Minix book and code)

  Computer Organization - all hardware and math, with a bit of
       assembly for one of the projects.

  Databases - I don't think we needed to write any programs.
       The teacher didn't like programming, so it was all theory.
       Didn't even learn SQL.

  Discrete Math I & II - all math, no programming

  Ethics for Computer Science and Engineering - reading and
       discussing papers but no programming (not even to
       break into the CS machines, which a few friends of
       mine did anyway, using C).

  Numerical Analysis - Fortran, but I got away with C.  I
       think this was an elective most people skipped.

  Fortran for Engineers - required for a physics degree but
       not for computer science

  Foundations of CS - all math, no programming

  Advanced C/C++ - taken mostly by people who knew that
       C++ was important for future work and jobs.  Eg,
       there were a lot of city people (non-CS undergrads)
       taking this course.

  IBM 360 Assembly - I didn't take it, but it was offered.
       It was left over from years previous - the teacher
       for the class really loved 360 assembly.

  Programming languages - normally this is the 'implement a
       lisp' course.  The year I took it it required almost no
       programming and was mostly a review of the literature.
       Did learn some APL though.


I'm probably missing a few courses.  What's interesting
from this list the number of CS courses not doing programming.

I always figured this was a consequence of the CS department
being in the school of arts & sciences and being more
math oriented.  Where I went to grad school the CS department
was in the engineering school and their undergrad assignments
were much more implementation oriented and with less theory.

That's not to say people at my undergrad all wanted to
learn the theory.

                    Andrew
                    dalke at acm.org