[OT] idiotic professor (was Re: Visual C++?????)
On Tue, Jun 29, 2004 at 07:42:02PM -0700, dking@pimpsoft.com wrote:
} To be a professor and have tenure in a institution of higher learning
} one usually must have a Ph.D. or at least a masters unless the school
} in question sucks; That takes a min of around 8 years.
}
} So its a safe bet that the professor, even if he may or may not be
} incompetent, has at least 8 years of education more then his students
} and thus knows more even if the students don't get that yet; After
} all he had to pass the tests to get his degree somehow.
This doesn't save anyone from being an idiot. I'll give you an example.
I know a professor who is a genius at algorithm design and theoretical
work, but doesn't know how to so much as compile a program (LaTeX
documents, loosely defined as a program, excepted). This does not make
him an idiot. If he were to agree to teach a software engineering
course, however, he would be an idiot.
The problem with the professor being discussed is not that he doesn't
know C++, or even necessarily software engineering (not sure what the
title of the course is). The problem is that he is requiring
platform-specific tools for a platform-independent subject matter. Note
that this assumes that the OP is reporting correctly that the professor
said he requires VC++ and Word to be used rather than requiring that
programs compile and run under VC++ and that handin documents be
readable on a Wintel PCi (which is simply enforcing a grading
environment).
That only covers the idiotic part. There is also a question of ethics;
is it ethical to require or even promote the use of costly, proprietary,
and buggy software in a university environment? That flamewar, however,
is thoroughly off-topic. As is this one.
--Greg
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