Comments for Koans of code http://koans.tomo-online.com Seeking the non-answers of software Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:02:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1 Comment on Garbage Collection and Google App Engine by Tomo http://koans.tomo-online.com/2008/09/29/garbage-collection-and-google-app-engine/#comment-1118 Tomo Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:43:11 +0000 http://koans.tomo-online.com/2008/09/29/garbage-collection-and-google-app-engine/#comment-1118 Consider yourself lucky. I seriously think writing a compiler should be included in curriculum of any Computer Science school. Not because world needs more compilers but because writing a compiler from scratch helps you grasp most of what's difficult in programming. Pointers, DSLs, GC, I could go on and on. Unfortunately most schools here (Poland) do not require actually writing a compiler. Some don't even offer courses on that, some teach only theory... Sigh... Consider yourself lucky.

I seriously think writing a compiler should be included in curriculum of any Computer Science school. Not because world needs more compilers but because writing a compiler from scratch helps you grasp most of what’s difficult in programming. Pointers, DSLs, GC, I could go on and on.

Unfortunately most schools here (Poland) do not require actually writing a compiler. Some don’t even offer courses on that, some teach only theory… Sigh…

]]> Comment on Garbage Collection and Google App Engine by James http://koans.tomo-online.com/2008/09/29/garbage-collection-and-google-app-engine/#comment-1117 James Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:03:36 +0000 http://koans.tomo-online.com/2008/09/29/garbage-collection-and-google-app-engine/#comment-1117 Not sure where your interns come from, but most decent computer science courses should cover these types of issues. I am a recent Australian CS graduate and we learned all about garbage collection strategies and other behind-the-scenes stuff. Off the top of my head, we also covered process management (we implement our own process manager which had to allow a choice of various selection strategies and measure execution times), and we also created our own compiler which had to parse a particular made-up language with meaningful error messages and convert the structure to a flat machine code. I agree that much abstraction is occurring. I am now a java developer, and hence worry less about memory management than would a C++ developer in my position 10 years ago, but I also probably develop application for a much larger scale (hope that makes sense), so the abstraction is neccessary. Having said that though, I do feel I understand what's going on behind the scenes, and have several times had to profile an app or diagnose a resource leak which has required me to think about those behind-the-scenes issues. Maybe your interns have done a course that is very focused on data representation and business rules etc (like Information Science) and have had less exposure to low level stuff in order to get more exposure to the high-level stuff. Not sure where your interns come from, but most decent computer science courses should cover these types of issues. I am a recent Australian CS graduate and we learned all about garbage collection strategies and other behind-the-scenes stuff. Off the top of my head, we also covered process management (we implement our own process manager which had to allow a choice of various selection strategies and measure execution times), and we also created our own compiler which had to parse a particular made-up language with meaningful error messages and convert the structure to a flat machine code. I agree that much abstraction is occurring. I am now a java developer, and hence worry less about memory management than would a C++ developer in my position 10 years ago, but I also probably develop application for a much larger scale (hope that makes sense), so the abstraction is neccessary. Having said that though, I do feel I understand what’s going on behind the scenes, and have several times had to profile an app or diagnose a resource leak which has required me to think about those behind-the-scenes issues. Maybe your interns have done a course that is very focused on data representation and business rules etc (like Information Science) and have had less exposure to low level stuff in order to get more exposure to the high-level stuff.

]]> Comment on Garbage Collection and Google App Engine by Tomo http://koans.tomo-online.com/2008/09/29/garbage-collection-and-google-app-engine/#comment-1100 Tomo Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:48:43 +0000 http://koans.tomo-online.com/2008/09/29/garbage-collection-and-google-app-engine/#comment-1100 Well, do you have any experience with interns? That's exactly what they do. Ask anything regarding "how things work" and all you get are blank stares. That leaves all the fun work for us, the smart guys. And the money :-) BTW, I can name maybe 3 people who studied with me who knew anything about such esoteric things as GC or guts of a compiler. I don't think students are worse now then when we were ones. Well, do you have any experience with interns? That’s exactly what they do. Ask anything regarding “how things work” and all you get are blank stares.

That leaves all the fun work for us, the smart guys. And the money :-)

BTW, I can name maybe 3 people who studied with me who knew anything about such esoteric things as GC or guts of a compiler. I don’t think students are worse now then when we were ones.

]]> Comment on Garbage Collection and Google App Engine by Emiel Regis http://koans.tomo-online.com/2008/09/29/garbage-collection-and-google-app-engine/#comment-1099 Emiel Regis Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:24:57 +0000 http://koans.tomo-online.com/2008/09/29/garbage-collection-and-google-app-engine/#comment-1099 I would argue that complete ignorance on what is going on behind the scenes of a GC or a scaling framework is a bad thing. I agree that as long as one is building more-less average, not very demanding applications, that knowledge is redundant and hand-crafting things will not pay off. However, as you noticed, there are cases when it is a must. I think it is OK to forget details if one does not need them. But if you are saying that most of future Java developers know next to nothing about how GC works, I consider it an educational failure. What else should software developers study at university if not how things work? Should they learn how to use APIs, what one can immediately check in the documentation? I don't think so:) I would argue that complete ignorance on what is going on behind the scenes of a GC or a scaling framework is a bad thing. I agree that as long as one is building more-less average, not very demanding applications, that knowledge is redundant and hand-crafting things will not pay off. However, as you noticed, there are cases when it is a must. I think it is OK to forget details if one does not need them. But if you are saying that most of future Java developers know next to nothing about how GC works, I consider it an educational failure. What else should software developers study at university if not how things work? Should they learn how to use APIs, what one can immediately check in the documentation? I don’t think so:)

]]> Comment on My very first Python S60 app by disnomia http://koans.tomo-online.com/2008/01/27/my-very-first-python-s60-app/#comment-1087 disnomia Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:11:47 +0000 http://koans.tomo-online.com/2008/01/27/my-very-first-python-s60-app/#comment-1087 Is one very nice app for pys60 and will be more perfect when you will add all the above option that you mentioned. Thanks for sharing!! Is one very nice app for pys60 and will be more perfect when you will add all the above option that you mentioned.
Thanks for sharing!!

]]> Comment on import antigravity by Tomo http://koans.tomo-online.com/2007/12/05/import-antigravity/#comment-116 Tomo Thu, 21 Feb 2008 05:49:57 +0000 http://koans.tomo-online.com/2007/12/05/import-antigravity/#comment-116 Some day I will. Some day I will.

]]> Comment on import antigravity by Psi http://koans.tomo-online.com/2007/12/05/import-antigravity/#comment-115 Psi Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:44:58 +0000 http://koans.tomo-online.com/2007/12/05/import-antigravity/#comment-115 Try PyQt :) Try PyQt :)

]]> Comment on My very first Python S60 app by Adam http://koans.tomo-online.com/2008/01/27/my-very-first-python-s60-app/#comment-114 Adam Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:14:59 +0000 http://koans.tomo-online.com/2008/01/27/my-very-first-python-s60-app/#comment-114 Cool looks good, and thanks for sharing the code its a good learning project. Cool looks good, and thanks for sharing the code its a good learning project.

]]> Comment on Can’t get it out of my head by #pb http://koans.tomo-online.com/2008/01/16/cant-get-it-out-of-my-head/#comment-97 #pb Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:37:22 +0000 http://koans.tomo-online.com/2008/01/16/cant-get-it-out-of-my-head/#comment-97 AFAIR everything is excellent there, except for sound quality. I really considered buying this, and finally decided to get http://europe.nokia.com/6120 , also great for playing with Symbian, very fast phone and three times cheaper. Both of them (probably) have poor access to buttons (have cut fingernails frequently) and - unfortunately - very poor battery life (most irritating thing). AFAIR everything is excellent there, except for sound quality. I really considered buying this, and finally decided to get http://europe.nokia.com/6120 , also great for playing with Symbian, very fast phone and three times cheaper.

Both of them (probably) have poor access to buttons (have cut fingernails frequently) and - unfortunately - very poor battery life (most irritating thing).

]]> Comment on In defense of a static method by guilty of untestability - intro :) « monkey island http://koans.tomo-online.com/2007/12/19/in-defense-of-a-static-method/#comment-96 guilty of untestability - intro :) « monkey island Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:02:28 +0000 http://koans.tomo-online.com/2007/12/19/in-defense-of-a-static-method/#comment-96 [...] Stuff like utility libraries - they’re fine and I’ve never needed to mock them. Tomo defends static methods bravely. He is right but mocking static methods still smells funny… If the [...] […] Stuff like utility libraries - they’re fine and I’ve never needed to mock them. Tomo defends static methods bravely. He is right but mocking static methods still smells funny… If the […]

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