My first class in M. Tech Computer Science

Zero as a most natural Number - Dijkstra 1982

I still remember my first class in Software engineering while I was studying for M. tech.  It was also our first class by our Professor and Dept. head. He started his class by saying " It all started with Edsger Dijkstra's letter Go To Statement Considered Harmful, published in the March 1968 Communications of the ACM ". During the class he not only proved his mastery on the subject but he also demonstrated his oratory skills. I did not blink an eye and when the class was over I could hardly wait to hear his next lecture.

I had around 8 years of programming experience before I joined for my M. Tech. How I was initiated into programming and when, is another story which I will tell some other time. But here I was enjoying the campus, the subjects and lectures.  Even though I was an ardent lover of books and had read many computer science books  and journal before my M. Tech course this was my first systematic initiation into theories of computers.  I was familiar with many topics that was being taught and so I do not felt that the whole course was difficult. I should admit that I did not enjoy all classes not because the topic was bad but because the people who taught the subjects had absolutely no idea what they were talking. But as a whole it was not a bad experience.

The subject I loved most was Software engineering and my favorite teacher was of course our master orator the department head.  So after the class I was in all smiles and was walking back to the bus stop. Suddenly another student of my class came running to catchup with me to the bus stop. He told me this

" Hey it looks like you were enjoying today's class. Can you please tell me what this Go to is" .

I looked at him in astonishment, trying to comprehend the meaning of his question. I said

" What! You have not heard about Gotos".

He replied

" No"

Am I living in some other planet? Did something happened between the class and bus stop? Did I enter into some other world by mistake? I asked him

"  You are an engineering graduate and  you are telling me you have not heard about Gotos. Then how did you choose to do M. Tech in computer Science?  Did you study any programming language? ".

At that time most of courses teach either Fortran or Basic which are goto programming language.

Now thinking back, I have this question. Should we study theory first and then  acquire a skill or vice versa? Computer science courses are theories while programming is a skill.  To become a programmer one do not need theories. But as we progress in our career we have to learn it.  I had the skill and so I enjoyed the course. People having no experience was wasting their time. 

Having a degree in computer science or any other engineering branch will not make you a good programmer. Industry wants skills and not education. 

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