Just a short, simple blog for Bob to share his thoughts.
03 November 2020 • by Bob • Computers, Education, Programming
A few years ago I elected to take a class at the University of Arizona as a refresher for a programming language that I hadn't used in over a decade. I was originally self-taught in the language, and I knew that the language had evolved since I had last used it, so I thought that it would be worthwhile endeavor to study it formally.
The class was going well, but when I turned in one of my assignments, the professor had dropped my grade a full letter because - seriously - he didn't like my variable names. Being an adult - and not an
I scheduled a time to meet with my professor, whereupon I told him that I thought he was wrong. All my variables were descriptive of their purpose, and I used a consistent format across the entire assignment. In addition, I wanted my grade restored.
The professor looked at me and said, "No one names variables like that."
I replied, "That's called 'Hungarian Notation.' It's a widely-used standard in the software industry."
He attempted to counter with, "That's outdated. No one uses that anymore."
To which I replied, "I work for Microsoft. We write millions of lines of code every day using that notation."
He grumbled a bit more, but eventually he acquiesced and restored my grade.
I later discovered that this particular professor earned his BS in Computer Science, then his Master's, then his Doctorate, and then went straight into teaching at higher education establishments. In other words, he's never worked a single day in the industry that he is teaching about, and yet somehow the software engineers of tomorrow are supposed to learn from him?
Tags: Computers, Education, Programming