Please tell me I don't need to learn this.



  • I've always thought the programming classes offered at the local community college were kind of weird.  Is this really a normal group of languages?  They have:

    2 Java classes
    3 COBOL classes
    3 RPG classes
    2 Visual Basic classes
    1 HTML class
    1 Javascript class

    They offer a Web Devlopment degree, but they got rid of their one Perl class a couple years ago, so I guess they think Java is the only website-building option.



  • Nifty, they offer classes for RPGs now?

    @Your Advisor/Weed Supplier said:

    Naw, man, you can't get into Advanced Dungeoneering until you're a senior, it's ALWAYS full!

    To be perfectly serious, this is community college. You're getting what you pay for.



  • COBOL??

     



  • That looks like the normal set of languages for disposable seat-warmers, and that's probably all the classes are good for (language-specific classes are rarely worth any more than that). Such people are hired principally to fill seats cheaply, so that the salesman can say "We have 30 COBOL developers" or whatever, when trying to get a contract - when in reality, they've hired 5 real developers (who will be doing all the actual work and have to be paid more than the minimum wage), and the rest aren't expected to do any real development work (and will spend most of their time doing office work, testing, and front-line support).



  • @dhromed said:

    COBOL??

    Support contracts for legacy financial applications. 



  • I see everybody knocking the CC here... but my community college offered OO design, system analysis, data structures, algorithms, and x86 assembly. Not bad for a 2 year school. I assume that there are others out there. However, this lineup is sad.



  • you don't need to learn that

    you need to find a new community college



  • @Cap'n Steve said:

    I've always thought the programming classes offered at the local community college were kind of weird.  Is this really a normal group of languages?  They have:

    2 Java classes
    3 COBOL classes
    3 RPG classes
    2 Visual Basic classes
    1 HTML class
    1 Javascript class

    They offer a Web Devlopment degree, but they got rid of their one Perl class a couple years ago, so I guess they think Java is the only website-building option.

     The community college i want to had

    Java, RPG, VB.net, C#, asp.net, javascript, and i hear they are adding php soon..

    I had to take the RPG class and that is a language i never want to work with. Mostly because of the little ide we were forced to use, its the pdm in an as/400 server.



  • I took classes at Ivy Tech in Indiana for some time in my high school years. (Is that the school you're talking about?)

    Maybe maintenance programming of mainframes (or simple VB and Java apps) is the easiest job market to target for them. It makes some sense - You just learn that one language and you can get into a niche market that will still be around 10 or 20 years. The language itself is easy so that students with less potential or little time and money can 'learn' them quickly and get niche jobs, and there are plenty of retired or retiring old farts willing to teach it.

    I still remember my flowcharting class. Bleh. The best class I had there was probably the VB class. Wow, you can just make it do shit.




  • Well, I suppose you could use Visual Basic with asp.net.



  • @Cap'n Steve said:



    3 RPG classes

     

    NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     

     

     



  • @Cap'n Steve said:

    I've always thought the programming classes offered at the local community college were kind of weird.  Is this really a normal group of languages?  They have:

    2 Java classes
    3 COBOL classes
    3 RPG classes
    2 Visual Basic classes
    1 HTML class
    1 Javascript class

    They offer a Web Devlopment degree, but they got rid of their one Perl class a couple years ago, so I guess they think Java is the only website-building option.

    Faculty: 

    Professor J, hired two years ago.

    Provessor H, five years tenure.

    Provessor V, ten years tenure.

    Professor CR, thirty years tenure.

    (RPG = Report Program Generator.  Very popular once.  The last time I used it was in 1976.)

    Actually, with that mix they could offer a program geared toward the mainframe financial and banking industry -- COBOL, RPG and PL/I can't be beat for that.  (Like an old Jeep, there are tasks for which nothing else will do.)

    You would have no reason to take COBOL and Java together, unless you are going for a double major.

     



  • @Cap'n Steve said:

    3 RPG classes

    Let me guess, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard? Clerics always get shafted, huh.

     

    Okay, try this one...

     

    Damn, 3 whole classes on launching grenades? Kick ass. 



  • @Cap'n Steve said:

    I've always thought the programming classes offered at the local community college were kind of weird. Is this really a normal group of languages? They have:

    2 Java classes
    3 COBOL classes
    3 RPG classes
    2 Visual Basic classes
    1 HTML class
    1 Javascript class

    Let me guess...the college has an IBM mainframe that runs a mission critical app written in RPG with some COBOL, with a front end running through a webserver built from Java, and the HTML is using a bit a Javascript and a bunch of VBScript, and they need some new maintenance programmers for cheap...



  • I thought their CIS department was better than average, just that it was a little weird to have these older languages (I still haven't heard anyone mention RPG outside of there) and not even offer C or a scripting language. And yes they do seem to like AS/400s, there's another class for that.



  • "and not even offer C or a scripting language"

     

    What about Javascri... oh, you mean a *real* scripting language



  • @Kemp said:

    "and not even offer C or a scripting language"

    What about Javascri... oh, you mean a real scripting language

    Yeah. JavaScript is actually an amazing little language. Functions are first-class objects. You get closures just like *snap* that. You can build a variety of interesting code reuse patterns with both inheritance and aggregation. Take a look at a decent little library like Prototype or MooFX...

    Of course, just about the only place you're going to be able to use this really neat language is in a web browser, and that's not exactly the optimal environment for many things (like, oh, reading files? connecting to databases?). And the language does have some really stupid points (think + for both addition and string concatenation, or the optional-semicolon business). Its threading is pretty danged weak, at best. And, of course, 95% of JavaScript usage is amateur junk to make the status bar scroll or something otherwise stupid. :P So there's a good chance he won't learn any of that there.

    There's this neat little page about "The World's Most Misunderstood Programming Language" by Douglas Crockford.



  • Yeah, I was thinking more along the lines of Perl or PHP when I wrote that.  I mean I can't imagine Java is better than third as far as language popularity goes, and COBOL and RPG have to be somewhere in the high seventies.



  • @fennec said:

    @Kemp said:

    "and not even offer C or a scripting language"

    What about Javascri... oh, you mean a real scripting language

    Yeah. JavaScript is actually an amazing little language. Functions are first-class objects. You get closures just like *snap* that. You can build a variety of interesting code reuse patterns with both inheritance and aggregation. Take a look at a decent little library like Prototype or MooFX...

    Of course, just about the only place you're going to be able to use this really neat language is in a web browser, and that's not exactly the optimal environment for many things (like, oh, reading files? connecting to databases?). And the language does have some really stupid points (think + for both addition and string concatenation, or the optional-semicolon business). Its threading is pretty danged weak, at best. And, of course, 95% of JavaScript usage is amateur junk to make the status bar scroll or something otherwise stupid. :P So there's a good chance he won't learn any of that there.

    There's this neat little page about "The World's Most Misunderstood Programming Language" by Douglas Crockford.

    Seconded so much! 


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