The combination of the blog title and this post title really say it all, don't they? Who would have thought that a computer science course would ask its poor unsuspecting class of roughly 175(?) people to attempt to communicate something to an audience in a language that doesn't share a name with a caffeinated beverage (or a letter of the alphabet [or a reptile]).
I must say, though, that upon further inspection this course secretly makes a LOT of sense (okay, maybe it's not such a big secret. I mean, somebody up there in UofT's admin decided it was a good idea, right?). What is programming if not a series of very very specific commands? In that sense, those who can't properly communicate with their audience, or 'user' in this case, would find themselves floundering.
From what I've seen, the higher level of programming one is attempting, the more essential proper communication becomes. Sure, I could hop onto any Python IDE and crank out a few hundred lines of code and be fine since I'm only required to understand my own ideas. But what if I was working on a significantly more difficult problem? One that might require a team, for example? Or even if I'm working alone for some reason, there's no way to remember the exact function of every line of code that I may have typed weeks ago. So I guess my point is that, while unexpected, I'm finding this course to be very refreshing. A person can only code for so long; it's nice to poke my head up from behind my laptop and know I'm capable of having a coherent conversation with another human being.
On that note, I can't wait for this course to ramp up! It will be interesting to see where we go from here. The material so far has been interesting, but not challenging (mind you, it's still just the second week). I am very excited to see where things go from here.
Anyway, that's me done for the day, hope yours is going well too
-Kevin
p.s. Think about all of the applications of pure logical proofs on your functions! Flow charts that actually make sense! No more wasting time wrestling with a logical line that makes no sense (assuming you figure out it doesn't make sense before you start it!)
Alright, leaving for real now.
