[bpyne]

Your comment harks to a much broader concept. Are Computer Science programs supposed to produce software engineers or people grounded in the theory?

My own opinion is that separate tracks should exist.

Grading students more harshly without modifying the focus of their studies simply won't produce better people in the field.

[bayindirh]

> Are Computer Science programs supposed to produce software engineers or people grounded in the theory?

I'm a graduate of a program called "Computer Engineering" which infuses a good deal of theory coupled with hardware and programming internals (gates, ALUs, programming language design, theory and implications, etc.)

As a person who absolutely loves coding, I immensely enjoy writing code while being able to visualize/understand how it will execute on the hardware. New CPUs blur the things continuously though.

[bpyne]

CE mixes low and high level concepts well. I've never had a hardware class but have a copy of Tanenbaum's hardware book. It gives me hand-wavy notion of how the processor operates. But I'd never apply for a hardware programming job. Eventually I'm going to take a class in computer architecture.

While I used an "or" in my statement the reality is that most CS programs give a smattering of different CS areas including theory, SE, and hardware. SE is often one course in a 4 year program. A developer simply can't develop the skills for SE in one course.

When I was in grad school for CS I had a course with the department chair. I had been in the field for 20+ years at that point. One day she asked me for feedback on how to improve the undergrad program for students who want to go into the field. My response was a separate track that required practical year-long projects requiring SE skills. Each year the project could get progressively more involved. Students in this track would still need courses like data structures, algorithms, and programming language paradigms. But they would apply the knowledge from them to practical projects.