Why aren't we all speaking LISP now?

[Erik Max Francis]

Laura Creighton wrote:

> This is an incredibly bad fit.  The students, almost without
> exception,
> wanted hands-on-experience.  They wanted examples.  And they wanted to
> write code.  The professors wanted to talk about concepts -- they
> wanted
> to do computer science, and (in my view quite reasonably), took the
> position that if you didn't like this sort of stuff, then you didn't
> like computer science, and maybe you should do something else.

They're right, to some extent.  There's a reason it's called computer
science, rather than dorky programming 101.  There are fundamental
concepts that, once you learn right, will apply to any programming
language you ever encounter.  Teach someone a programming language, and
they can write simple programs in it.  Teach someone computer science,
and they can learn any programming language and master difficult
concepts.

-- 
 Erik Max Francis / max at alcyone.com / http://www.alcyone.com/max/
 __ San Jose, CA, US / 37 20 N 121 53 W / ICQ16063900 / &tSftDotIotE
/  \ Men live by forgetting -- women live on memories.
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    The laws list / http://www.alcyone.com/max/physics/laws/
 Laws, rules, principles, effects, paradoxes, etc. in physics.