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Comment Re:How a car works ... (Score 1) 226

by peetm (#57555003) Attached to: Kids Think the Darndest Things About How Computers Work

In france, the compulsory formation before you get the driving license teaches you how the car works, and how to do simple maintenance on it, including changing a flat tyre and checking lubricant levels. You have to pass an exam and cannot get the license without demostrating this knowledge.

So I find your anecdote... quite peculiar.

What can I say .. it happened in Caen; perhaps the locals there know how to get around the regulations.

Comment How a car works ... (Score 5, Interesting) 226

by peetm (#57548519) Attached to: Kids Think the Darndest Things About How Computers Work

You're right - and it's not just kids.

A couple of years ago I was asked to teach a Masters level course in software development. During one discussion, we somehow got on to the subject of cars, and what made them go. Faced with baffled faces and a stunned silence, I drilled a bit deeper and found that none of them actually knew how an internal combustion engine worked - had no idea as to what made it go other than they had to put petrol in every so often. They had cars, drove them, but none of them knew anything about the mechanism under the hood.

This reminds me of a visit to France earlier this year. My wife and I were walking past a couple when my wife slowed down, turned to me, and said "I don't think the man knows what to do about their flat tyre - the girl has just said to him that he'll have to ask someone." They were well into their 20s, but neither had a clue. With the help of my wife as a translator, I changed the wheel for them. You should have seen their faces when I 'amazed them' with my knowledge, e.g., I knew that there'd be a special adapter required to take off one of the wheel-nuts; and that it was probably in the car's glove compartment (which it was).

I'm at a loss to explain this. Where has 'curiosity' gone; especially in males!? They all seem too much into self grooming products and how they look these days.

Submission + - Thinking Like a Programmer (means what?)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I've been asked to put together a half-day workshop whose title is 'Thinking Like a Programmer'.

The idea behind this is that within my institution (a university), we have a vast number of self-taught programmers who have never been taught 'best practice' or anything about software engineering. This workshop's intention is to address this lack of formal training.

So, the question is, what should be covered in this workshop?

If you have an idea — that also has an example of best practice — please share (I'm sure we'll all learn something)!

Comment Is GDB as good as the VS Debugger? (Score 1) 159

by peetm (#54018973) Attached to: Microsoft Continues Porting Visual C++ To Linux

I'm more than curious.

I find the VS debugger to be simply wonderful; as do others. In my institution, a lot of developers (mostly Ph.D. students) who have to target Linux, choose to run VS in a VM and develop/debug under Windows before recompiling under Linux. This is so popular that some have automated the process somewhat and perform Linux daily builds (only).

I've used GDB in the past, but wasn't impressed: so I'm wondering why, if the VS debugger under Windows is so good, why don't more people don't do this sort of thing?

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