in reply to Frustrations... (and a thank you)

Just a few observations...

Enjoying work on a CS degree isn't the same as enjoying work as a professional programmer. Most of your future co-workers will know less than this prof. And they'll be paid about the same as you. You might love CS, but hate a programming career.

What school requires a course in Perl for a CS degree? That's very unusual. Is this part of a comparative language course? (That would explain why the prof doesn't know much about Perl.)

IMHO the skills that make you a good programmer aren't Perl skills. Perl may be a good tool, but learning Perl is not the point of a CS degree. If you find your prof making mistakes in algorithm design, then you can get pissed off and ask for a refund. ;)

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Re**2: Frustrations... (and a thank you)
by charnos (Friar) on Oct 02, 2002 at 15:03 UTC
    Agreed. Professors aren't paid to familiarize themselves with tools and learn all the nuances of a language (with regard to the use warnings; vs. -w, perhaps the last time the professor had exposure to Perl was way back in the long long ago before it existed). If this is a comparative language course (my school has such a course that is required, and most professors teach Perl as well as other languages), then there is certainly no reason that he be compared to the gods. Some prof's just get stuck with courses, perhaps this one is an AI guy, or a distributed networks programmer. In either case, it sounds to me like this is either an elective course, a concentration, or a comaparative languages class, a similar topic was brought up a year ago about Perl being taught as a mandatory school, and the concensus was that not many schools require it.
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