map/filter/reduce/lambda opinions and background unscientific mini-survey

[Grant Edwards]

On 2005-07-05, mcherm at gmail.com <mcherm at gmail.com> wrote:

> Up until a few years ago, I ran the computer science department at a
> high-school. I provided support for the English teachers who taught
> *all* students -- but they taught things like the use of a word
> processor or the internet,

That's not computer science.

> and never covered the meaning of "lambda". I taught a computer
> applications course which was taken by only small fraction of
> the students (<10%) but there I taught things like the use of
> photo-editing software, creating web sites, and the use of
> simple databases;

That's not computer science.

> I never covered the meaning of "lambda". I also taught the
> programming class (taken by only a dozen or so students per
> graduating class) -- students learned basic concepts like
> variables, looping, up through fancier bits like a couple
> different sorting algorithms.

Now you're getting a little closer to computer science.

It sounds like you ran a computer user training department.  I
don't think it could be called computer science.

> But I didn't cover the meaning of "lambda". And I also taught
> the "AP" computer course (taken by an average of just 4
> students per year!), in which I explained things like object
> oriented programming and recursion and managed to get the
> students to the level where they could work together as a
> group to write a moderately complex program, like a simple
> video game. And I didn't teach the meaning of "lambda", nor
> was it covered by the "AP" exam, which is supposed to be
> equivalent to a single college-level course in computer
> programming.

Computer programming isn't the same thing as computer science.
It's just one of the tools used to do computer science.

> So I'd say that it's a pretty obscure name that most people
> wouldn't know.

I can't believe that anybody with any computer science
background doesn't know it.

> And besides, "def" isn't a "magic" word... it's an abreviation
> for "define"... I hope that any student who didn't understand
> a word as common as "define" wouldn't have graduated from our
> school.

Lamda isn't a magic word either.  It comes from lambda
calculus.

-- 
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