"flobert" <nomail@here.NOT> wrote in message
news:naj5j1l6uc6ovrdopud1dmklb7v7dagtb9@4ax.com...

> Programming classes are similarly specialised. In short, think of how
> often you'll need to use things in your everyday life, not just your
> job. I haven't programmed anything more than markup language since i
> left university, and which language would you have them proram in?
> java, c++? delphi? LOGO? Biology experiments should, however, be part
> of the biology class curicculum, be it time-elapsed investigatiosn of
> amalyse via starch content measured by iodene, or disection of a
> bovine heart.
>
Although I agree with much of your post, I respectfully disagree with the
premise that programming is very language specific. I've only used a few
languages (the old DOS QuickBasic, Visual Basic, Visual C#, and Intel
assembly... I *hate* C and C++) but it's clear the focus of modern high
level languages is structure. Even the pre-.NET VB has strong structure
while being a snap to learn.

If you think about it, everything we plan is a program. Understanding how to
structure and modularize plans (including "exception handling" - dealing
with potential snags) is the key to carrying off any big project. Outlining
provides the same sort of benefit for small projects but doesn't have the
potential for minimizing interactions or handling vagaries of fate that
structured logic does.

I was in a class of about 20 at work, learning about setting up a monitoring
system for our trunking radios. The CPU card had to be programmed in ladder
logic, and the instructor asked how many of us had programming experience. I
was surprised to see every one of us did.

Mike