Comments on: Computer Language Pioneer John Backus Passes http://asecondhandconjecture.com/index.php/2007/03/20/computer-language-pioneer-john-backus-passes/ Questions through the veil of ignorance Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:08:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Eric http://asecondhandconjecture.com/index.php/2007/03/20/computer-language-pioneer-john-backus-passes/comment-page-1/#comment-27728 Eric Wed, 21 Mar 2007 03:25:28 +0000 http://asecondhandconjecture.com/?p=619#comment-27728 You wrote: "Many of the people who I’ve seen throughout my career have only had the foggiest notion of how to do this. To me it seemed as if they knew the syntax of a language, but not the grammar needed to make cogent sentences." Also in my computer career I saw lots of problems translating what the user really needed into a working program or system. I think the problem has less to do with the programmer not knowing how to "make cogent sentences" in FORTRAN or HTML or whatever, and much more to do with not understanding the user's subject area well enough. (Heck, I think a lot of users really don't understand their subject area well enough). I think good designers/systems analysts/programmers have to develop expertise not only in computers, but in the subject area the computer is supposed to support. A similar problem seems to have arisen in the education field -- at least some teachers seem to have been trained entirely on education methods, but have little training in the subject area they are to teach, e.g. English, mathematics, etc. I think computer programmers who are going to support applications (as opposed to studying computer science itself) and teachers both would be better for it if they got their undergraduate degrees in specific subjects, then added programming skills and/or teaching skills later. elb You wrote: “Many of the people who I’ve seen throughout my career have only had the foggiest notion of how to do this. To me it seemed as if they knew the syntax of a language, but not the grammar needed to make cogent sentences.”

Also in my computer career I saw lots of problems translating what the user really needed into a working program or system. I think the problem has less to do with the programmer not knowing how to “make cogent sentences” in FORTRAN or HTML or whatever, and much more to do with not understanding the user’s subject area well enough. (Heck, I think a lot of users really don’t understand their subject area well enough). I think good designers/systems analysts/programmers have to develop expertise not only in computers, but in the subject area the computer is supposed to support.

A similar problem seems to have arisen in the education field — at least some teachers seem to have been trained entirely on education methods, but have little training in the subject area they are to teach, e.g. English, mathematics, etc.

I think computer programmers who are going to support applications (as opposed to studying computer science itself) and teachers both would be better for it if they got their undergraduate degrees in specific subjects, then added programming skills and/or teaching skills later.

elb

]]>