mhoyeMar 13, 2024

Lazyweb, a question: let's say that you could teach a "cultural anthropology" type of course about computing to first year students, to prepare them for the codebases, communities, patterns and software philosophies of the programming world. You've got about ten weeks to run it. What would you teach in that course and why?

(RTs appreciated for reach.)

Show threadJaimie MurdockMar 13, 2024
@mhoye GNU, Cathedral and the Bazaar, version control (CVS, SVN, Git), software licensing ("copyleft"), "embrace, extend, extinguish", StackOverflow, continuous integration ("DevOps"), shareware, SaaS, "sneakernet" (and the arms race of piracy/DRM)
Show threadmhoyeMar 13, 2024
@Jaimie CatB is a hard no. That text has aged extraordinarily badly, as has its author.
Show threadLuis Villa

@mhoye a final essay exam question could be "here's a one-paragraph summary of CatB, explain why it resonated in the late-90s and what it got wrong".

(You can also borrow from my fav compsci prof, who on occasion assigns "explain this XKCD" as a final exam question...)

Mar 13, 2024 at 6:16pmWeb