Re: Education (was RPG Trivia)

Aye.

Back when I first started getting into computers, 1974 or so,
I knew quite a bit about what was out there by about 1979, 1980.  I knew
about the technology, the programming languages, printers, communications,
etc...  Although I didn't know everything about computers, I knew, or had
heard about, about 75% of what was out there.  Nothing much was a surprise.

Now, what I know is a just a drop in the bucket, and I know a lot more now
too.  I'm lucky if I know 5% about what is out there.  There is just so much
more to learn.

In addition to the languages I had initially learned (Fortran, Cobol, ASM,
APL, Pascal, Basic, etc...) new languages have been coming out at an astonishing
pace, some to die off (Symphony, Lotus 123, dBase, etc...) and some stick
around for a while (OOPS, Java, RPG, and who knows how many I don't even know
about?).  We have come from a few operating systems (CPM, IBM JCL, Wang
Basic, Unix, etc...) to too many (PC Dos, Windows, OS/2, OS400, etc...).

And hardware.  We didn't have PCIMIA, PCI, AGP, USB, CGA, EGA, VGA, SVGA,
Fiber Optic, 100/1000 BaseT, Cat3, Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, ad nausium.  And the
public internet POP3, SMTP, Telnet, IRC, FTP, WhoIS, etc..

I don't think that the students are learning any less then we did, they are 
just learning a much lesser percentage of the total.  They are probably learning
a whole heck of a lot more.

At some point we may hit the point of diminishing returns.  When there is just
too many varied things out there for people to support.  Then perhaps we'll get
true inter operability and standards.

Regards,

Jim Langston

Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2001 15:20:56 -0400
From: Jon.Paris@hal.it
Subject: Education (was RPG Trivia)

 >> Do you all feel that, on the average, programmers coming out of college
are lees knowledgeable

I don't know about the knowledge level - certainly they are versed in a
wider range.  Twenty years ago they weren't being taught browsers, Java,
Windows, etc. etc. on top of the basics.  Just RPG/COBOL/C/FORTRAN.  With
the S/38 I figured I knew about 75% of the system.  With the AS/400 it
became about 50% - by the time the iSeries arrived I figured I was down to
about 25%.  Increase the number of topics and the skill level in any one
area inevitably drops.

I do feel that waaaaayyyy too many these days get into it for the money and
often have zero aptitude.  We consider ourselves lucky with the grads we've
hired here in the last 2 years and we're still only batting .500!
+---
| This is the Midrange System Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com
+---