Technology

Microsoft finally dies…

8 April 2007 By Avinash Meetoo 13 Comments

Hip! Hip! Hurray!

To summarise, Microsoft is dead thanks to

Google which is now the new big player with loads of cash,
Ajax applications like Gmail which showed that the desktop is irrelevant and
Apple and Linux because thanks to them (I quote) “[a]ll the computer people use Macs or Linux now. Windows is for grandmas, like Macs used to be in the 90s. So not only does the desktop no longer matter, no one who cares about computers uses Microsoft’s anyway.”

Paul Graham concludes his essay with this paragraph:

“I already know what the reaction to this essay will be. Half the readers will say that Microsoft is still an enormously profitable company, and that I should be more careful about drawing conclusions based on what a few people think in our insular little “Web 2.0″ bubble. The other half, the younger half, will complain that this is old news.”

:-)

On the necessity to master C

7 April 2007 By Avinash Meetoo 13 Comments

C is an important programming language. It was created more than 30 years ago by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie and it is still used a lot especially to write systems software.

The Linux kernel, for instance, is written in C.

C is the new Assembly and this makes it an important language to master if one wants to be a proficient computer scientist.

In my opinion, there are two reasons why C is the new Assembly.

The first reason is portability. Assembly code is not portable and C is. Remember, C was invented around 1973 to write UNIX in a portable way. It is more sensible to learn C than to learn, say, IA-32 Assembly code especially it your time is limited.

Secondly, programming in Assembly is rarely done today because modern processors are superscalar and therefore reorder instructions. As a result, what you write is not what is being executed (or, more precisely, the order may be different). As far as I know, it is more efficient to use a good optimising C compiler (like gcc) than trying to manually optimise Assembly code on modern processors.

C allows someone to really understand how a Von Neumann computer works. And this is crucial to become a good problem-solver.

<rant>

At the University of Mauritius, the first language a student learns is C++. More precisely, it is a limited version of C++ where all the new features are ignored (STL(!), templates and generic programming for example). During the first year, the students only does procedural programming along with a little bit of object-based programming when doing the data structure module.

In my opinion, C would have been a much better choice. Sure, printf is not as easy to use as cout but C is so much simpler to learn. And, personally, I find it more elegant.

I really think that a first year University student should know all of C (and not a small subset of a more complex language). They should really understand what a pointer is and how recursion works.

Building a strong foundation in programming is important for someone who intends to work as a programmer for years and years.

The C Programming Language should be used as a textbook along with another good book on Data Structures.

One immediate benefit is that students learning graphics or systems software would have fewer problems using the standard libraries which are mostly C libraries (UNIX system calls, the pthread concurrency library, OpenGL, etc.)

Finally, instead of learning the syntax and semantics of a language, it would be much more interesting (not to say beneficial) to learn how to solve problems. One possibility is to teach students to solve the kind of problems given during the ACM Inter Collegiate Programming Contest (the easy ones at least…)

</rant>

Opinion?

(Addendum: While reading this post, I realised that another possibility is to teach C to make the student know how a computer works and, in parallel, use a higher-level programming language like Scheme to learn about how to build data structures. Opinion?)

How to become a (real) Computer Scientist

31 March 2007 By Avinash Meetoo 24 Comments

From Jeff Atwood,

“For a fast-moving field like computer science, the work you’re doing is far more relevant than any classes you’re taking. If you must choose between formal schooling and work experience, always choose work. If you’re in school, aggressively pursue real-world experience that compliments your schoolwork.”

I agree with Jeff! Nothing is more important than trying things by yourself when learning something new. Especially programming which is a mix of Science, Engineering and Art.

Yesterday, coincidentally, I was telling my students that this what Science is all about: doing experiments!

Jeff quotes Stephen Leacock:

“If I were founding a university I would found first a smoking room; then when I had a little more money in hand I would found a dormitory; then after that, or more probably with it, a decent reading room and a library. After that, if I still had more money that I couldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t use, I would hire a professor and get some textbooks.”

What he meant was that what is important in a University is to have a place where people can meet and talk and learn and share experience. This is sooooooo true. When I think about my years in France, I distinctly remember the various nights my friends and I spent in our rooms having fun and talking about technology, programming and philosophy. I have forgotten about most lectures I attended… This is what is missing here at the University of Mauritius. And this is why many people tell me that it is just a glorified college. And I think I have to agree. Unfortunately.

Jeff gives the following advice to young people willing to become great Computer Scientists:

Do work placements (stage)
Participate in local user groups (LUGM is nice!)
Contribute to an open-source project.
Publish articles.
Start a blog.

So, dear students, move your ass and try to secure a work placement (stage) as soon as possible in a good software development company! Yesterday, we were discussing with Accenture and the people there are very nice! I guess the people from Infosys are also very nice. You get the point?