[Linux-aus] Re: High school computing texts

[Jon 'maddog' Hall]

> 
> Perhaps an introduction to binary is good, but I haven't seen one
> practical application of binary multiplication or (gasp) long binary
> division, which I absolutely hate, nor can I understand.

Then you would not be able to make the choice between adding a number to
itself 1024 times, or simply shifting that number to the left 12 times.

> 
> In fact, the only program I've ever written that has had to deal with
> binary is the Python script I wrote to convert decimal to binary and
> write out full working to make my life easier.
> 
> >
> > School courses can't teach everything about a subject. It
> > isn't university where you can spend 3 to 7 years studying
> > aspects of the same subject.  A school subject might give
> > five contact hours on databases, a university course would
> > give 30 to 70 contact hours.
> 
> Yep.
> 

This actually is not about "binary".  It is about "number systems" and
is part of the fundamental theory and practicality of math.  It does not
make any difference whether it is the decimal, octal, hexadecimal or
binary base.

When I taught at the college level many years ago I found a whole class
of students that really did not know what "adding" really did.  They had
learned to "add" through a practice known as "Chisembop" (which I wrote
extensively about in 2005 for LPI):

http://list.lpi.org/pipermail/lpi-discuss/2005-September/009725.html

Today I am finding students who "use calculators" and have no idea if
the answer of "2+2" is "4" or if it is 4,567,237 (because they hit a
memory register key by accident), and store clerks who look at me like I
am crazy when I give them a twenty dollar bill and 43 cents in change
when I have a charge of $10.43 (obviously wanting a ten dollar bill back
in change).

Maybe an English student can learn about number systems one time, then
"relax" a little as they go though life, but a CS student can not.

And while we are at it, lets talk about really *understanding* what
"precision" means in floating-point and scientific calculations.

Sorry, this should be taught at elementary school level.  High school is
too late.

Regards,

maddog