Re:Hey programmers, we need to talk (2013)
by aisofteng on Saturday June 17, 2017 @11:02PM
(#14578750)
For some reason, basic things like the Boyer-Moore string search algorithm seem to be viewed as "advanced" or something by most programmers. In reality, it's basic (that's why it's taught in undergrad).
Fewer and fewer computer science students seem to graduate with an understanding of or appreciation for actual computer science.
If it usually comes from a library and is not implemented by yourself, then to almost all programmers it's an advanced algorithm. Yes, that includes sorting. Most code is incredibly trivial, midsize state-machines at best. The problem is that we still expect the run-of-the-mill CRUD programmer to have a degree.
Well, Computer Science and Software Development are different disciplines, and quite a few universities have a differentiation between them.
Re:Hey programmers, we need to talk (2013)
by ubernostrum on Sunday June 18, 2017 @06:31AM
(#14579994)
Fewer and fewer computer science students seem to graduate with an understanding of or appreciation for actual computer science.
All the big tech companies ask pop-quiz questions and the same handful of "regurgitate this algorithm on a whiteboard" problems in interviews, and then say they've checked for "fundamentals".
Are you really surprised that people adjust to and optimize for doing well at that?
what is "real computer science" in this case? automated theorem proving? that is decidedly a graduate topic so I'm not surprised undergrads don't know anything about it.
I think the problem is that, while the undergrad doesn't necessarily need to understand graduate-level topics, they should be aware of their existence (and their own current inability to appreciate it)
Re:Hey programmers, we need to talk (2013)
by auggierose on Sunday June 18, 2017 @07:02AM
(#14580109)
Yes, in a talk by Moore I attended last year he said it was really disappointing that he gets so many questions about the string search algorithm, and not about his real life's work.
Making it another case that proves the point of this article.
Re:Hey programmers, we need to talk (2013)
by auggierose on Monday June 19, 2017 @10:02AM
(#14587011)
Nope, not really. Moore got plenty of recognition for his work, for example https://awards.acm.org/award_winners/moore_4797627
It just shows that you shouldn't care about what MOST people care about :-)
(I used to know Boyer and Moore, and used their theorem prover. Recently I took the original sources from the final 1992 version, put them on Github, and got it working with the current GNU Common LISP.[1] So you can now run their prover from the 1980s several thousand times faster than in the VAX days. It's neat to see it prove the basic theorems of number theory in about a second.)
[1] https://github.com/John-Nagle/nqthm