Friday, March 11, 2011

CS Education: C# in Mono / Java

At least three times this year, I have found myself suggesting that perhaps it would be better to teach component-based software enginereing to young undergraduates using C# (via Mono, of course) as opposed to the more-restrictive Java. I feel a little like Nixon going to China when I say this...

Having said that, it's probably better to use Java for production code. But I almost think that you need flexibility to experiment at the educational level, and Java has no flexibility (because it is so tightly crafted for security, portability, and stability). C++ has a lot of flexibility, but no one wants students learning C++ anymore (a comment on that in a bit). C# (under Mono, of course) has more flexibility than Java but less than C++. It's relevant, as it is relatively easy to move from C# development to Java develpoment (and there are plenty of companies (or at lest one gigantic one) that are looking for C# developers too). It has preprocessor directives (even though it has no preprocessor), which gives it a customizable presentation for the classroom environment. So it feels like it would be easier to start with C# and then "graduate" to Java (and go to graduate school for Lisp? I dunno. And where does Python fit in? Maybe it takes the place of Logo in 4th grade).

Regarding the note above about no one wanting students to learn C++ anymore, it is interesting that software interviewers are typically of the age and rank where most of their experience is in C or C++. I was at an interview recently where the interviewer asked questions contrasting addressing individual bytes of a 4-byte unsigned integer using pointers or bitmasks; such a question does not belong in any discussion of Java. Moreover, I heard someone in a nearby cubicle on a phone interview being asked about static variables in C and C++ programs. The graduate student was more familiar with "static" in the context of Java, and so I think he worked htings out sufficiently well, but most students have never heard of this term (likewise, they don't even think to look up "persistent" in their MATLAB documentation). So it seems unfair that undergraduates are being switched over to Java... and will be asked about pointers in some of their first technical interviews. Oh well...

2 comments:

Mike Niller said...

Hello,

i want to say thank you for a great job you've done on your blog.
I have a software download website and I also write articles for people to help them with their computers and software. Is it possible to place this article on your blog as a guest post?

Regards,
Andy G.

Ted Pavlic said...

Andy (or Mike?) -- I suppose that would be OK so long as there would be a link back to the original post and/or another way to credit me as author.

(sorry for the delay in response -- Blogger felt that your comment was spam)