1/8/2024 0 Comments School of magic logic grid![]() With so much on the line, we CS students live in constant fear of breaking the honor code when trying to build upon externally available examples. So what do you do when your instructor tells you to consult “Professor Google” for how to program in a particular language? And what’s the policy on using code from Web sites? How about example code from textbooks? Asking for help on StackOverflow? ![]() There is a single-sanction policy, meaning that anyone caught lying, cheating, or stealing is automatically and unequivocally expelled from the university with no second chance or opportunity to return. The most significant one revolves around the fact that the University of Virginia has one of the oldest and strictest honor codes in the nation. Needing to build on the work of others and the necessity of independent learning has raised numerous tricky issues for me and my fellow CS students. Although I question the practicality of learning assembly languages, doing so provided some valuable perspective on just how amazing and complex the inner When I learned about how compilers and lower level languages worked, I realized that any code I write in a high-level language is translated into various other forms before it can be finally understood by the computer. In my naïveté, I also failed to realize just how many layers there are in a modern computer system. From libraries to frameworks to development tools, programmers regularly share their work so others can use it and improve upon it for the betterment of everyone. Programming from scratch just isn’t necessary anymore, and in most situations, it’s not even possible. I would later learn that using any modern programming language requires relying on code, foundations, and tools that many others have created. At the time, I believed that there are only two types of people in the world: those who make the tools and those who use them. I actually started as a business major but quickly switched to computer science because I wanted to make the tools people use and not just be a consumer. In the real world because I’ll never know everything I need to and will constantly have to learn on the job. Being able to learn on one’s own is necessary to succeed ![]() I haven’t always liked needing to do a substantial amount of independent learning before even beginning some homework, but I now understand that it is a valuable skill. It was, and still is, an entirely different experience from high school. This came as a shock to me initially, but after years of working through these assignments, I’ve come to understand that teaching myself is perhaps the most important thing college has taught me. Professors never bother to make sure the class knows a particular technology before handing out an assignment. That’s particularly true of computer science at the college level, which is very much the opposite of regurgitating memorized facts. Alas, while my grades may have helped me get into college, high school otherwise didn’t do much to prepare me for the University of Virginia. There was no guessing as to what resources or subject matter to study. I learned what was required from textbooks and was tested on it. I was great at that and always received above-average grades. Like many others, I entered college from a high school where students were rewarded with good grades for memorizing and regurgitating the correct answers. It’s not that my life is so particularly interesting, but that as a fourth-year computer science major at the University of Virginia, I have a particular perspective on the technology world that Adam thought might be of interest to those whose college days are long past. You don’t know me - well, I don’t think you do, anyway - but TidBITS publisher Adam Engst asked me tell you a little about myself. #1615: Why Stage Manager needs an M1 iPad, Limit IP Address Tracking problems, Citibank cryptocurrency confusion.#1616: Explaining passkeys, Apple challenges for senior citizens, macOS 11.6.7 Big Sur fixes email attachment bug.#1617: Pages regains mail merge, HomeKit sensor improvements, keyboard flags in Monterey.Preview selections, portable power for a MacBook Pro #1618: M2 MacBook Air available to order, Lockdown Mode, Live Text vs.#1619: Stage Manager first impressions, Live Text in Preview redux, SMS 2FA failure fix, moving large folders with ChronoSync.
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