Re: why no OCaml teaching

Most people are very concrete thinkers who want practical results in the
shortest amount of time possible.  It's the McDonald's culture.  Which is
easier or "faster"?  To swim a couple miles every week for fitness?  Or to
just take a diet pill or have surgery to remove excess fat?  It's the same
phenomenon that we're talking about, but in a different context.  A lot of
CS majors want that "diet pill" because they don't want to endure 2 or 3
years of mathematical hardship at their universities.  And most CS
departments are willing to accommodate them for the sake of better student
enrollment.... which of course leads to more tuition money for the
university.  Welcome to education in the 21st century!


On Wed, Mar 23, 2016 at 1:05 PM, Kenneth Miller [email protected]
[ocaml_beginners] <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> I agree strongly Mr. Herr. I get very irritated with how ideas *and* work
> I've generated is referred to as theoretical.
>
>
> On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 1:43 PM, "'Mr. Herr' [email protected]
> [ocaml_beginners]" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> On 23.03.2016 17:55, Douglas Lewit [email protected] [ocaml_beginners]
> wrote:
>
>
> Ken,
>
> Also, a quick question here.  Where I go to school Java is the #1
> language.  Not a bad choice at all.  I think Java rocks, but there are
> other languages of course.  In my CS department Python is the #2 language.
> Why hasn't Ocaml become more popular?  It's actually an interesting
> language, and can really help CS students break through the "recursion
> barrier" that makes the Data Structures course insurmountably difficult for
> some students.
>
> "innocent" question, difficult answer.
>
> I think the problem is that beginners and people outside of education are
> protesting loudly against "languages nobody uses",
> or "esoteric academic subjects", supposedly "unimportant" for your work as
> a programmer.
>
> They don't understand that Informatics students are not learning one
> language, apply for the next
> job offer that requires it, and are done, but they have to learn the
> principles of programming.
>
> /Str.
>
>
> 
>