On Tue, Jun 29, 2004 at 07:42:02PM -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: } To be a professor and have tenure in a institution of higher learning } one usually must have a Ph.D. or at least a masters unless the school } in question sucks; That takes a min of around 8 years. } } So its a safe bet that the professor, even if he may or may not be } incompetent, has at least 8 years of education more then his students } and thus knows more even if the students don't get that yet; After } all he had to pass the tests to get his degree somehow.
This doesn't save anyone from being an idiot. I'll give you an example. I know a professor who is a genius at algorithm design and theoretical work, but doesn't know how to so much as compile a program (LaTeX documents, loosely defined as a program, excepted). This does not make him an idiot. If he were to agree to teach a software engineering course, however, he would be an idiot. The problem with the professor being discussed is not that he doesn't know C++, or even necessarily software engineering (not sure what the title of the course is). The problem is that he is requiring platform-specific tools for a platform-independent subject matter. Note that this assumes that the OP is reporting correctly that the professor said he requires VC++ and Word to be used rather than requiring that programs compile and run under VC++ and that handin documents be readable on a Wintel PCi (which is simply enforcing a grading environment). That only covers the idiotic part. There is also a question of ethics; is it ethical to require or even promote the use of costly, proprietary, and buggy software in a university environment? That flamewar, however, is thoroughly off-topic. As is this one. --Greg -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
