Newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.modula2,comp.lang.scheme
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!uunet!bcstec!bcsaic!rodney
From: rodney@bcsaic.boeing.com (Rodney M. Bates)
Subject: Re: Comparison of languages for CS1 and CS2
Message-ID: <DAHKpC.2AH@bcsaic.boeing.com>
Organization: Boeing Computer Services
References: <3pdnsi$i2v@urvile.MSUS.EDU> <EACHUS.95Jun16171929@spectre.mitre.org> <3rutid$ohf@felix.seas.gwu.edu> <1995Jun19.124449@sister>
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 1995 19:27:12 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.edu:12949 comp.lang.ada:31542 comp.lang.c++:134394 comp.lang.modula2:11845 comp.lang.scheme:12930

FWIW, this phenomenon of being under tremendous pressure to get something
working which will handle the test cases at hand is not unique to a
student's life.  In industry, there is the same pressure.  It's always
"get something out for a first release and we'll clean it up later".
Famous last words!  

Furthermore, the "schedule", which enjoys near sacred status, has,
in my experience, without exception, been set not by what the developers 
say they need to do the job, but by what the managers feel they must
promise to get the business.  To be fair, I have a collegue who says
a project he worked on, of several years duration, was actually scheduled
on developers' estimates.  But I can't remember it happening to me.

Usually, we get accused of expecting, irresponsibly, to be paid for
frivolous prefectionism.  There is probably a valid argument there, 
but what is really demanded of us goes beyond merely avoiding the 
frivolous, to producing really shoddy work which is awful to maintain.  
(Often, it becomes unmanageable even before the initial delivery.)
Then we are the ones who have to struggle with the mess.

Sorry if my pessimism is showing.  It's a wearying battle trying to get
enough room to do things in a reasonable way.  A perverse way of looking
at the situation in the universities might be that the time pressure
phenomenon is a realistic foretaste of life in industry.

Rodney Bates
