eXtreme Education
I feel like I’m slowly converging on some good ideas that have been floating around long before I noticed them. Again, in the book I’ve been reading, Standards for Our Schools, I came across some good material. The authors were…
Jim Stigler
Because the book that I was reading in my last post mentioned stark differences between Japanese and American instruction. I decided to watch this talk given by Jim Stigler earlier this year, and took some notes: Jim teaches mathematics, but…
Teaching Techniques
I’ve been reading this book, Standards for Our Schools, that I picked up at the UCI bookstore. In it, the authors have a section where they compare American educational systems with that of the Japanese. Here, we argue for smaller…
Cool stuff to look at
Steve Yegge gave a nice talk at OSCON, What would you do with your own Google?, compelling us all to focus on math, stats, machine learning, and the understanding the core fundamentals. We should be working to make the world…
How Compiler Construction Remains Relevant (part 3)
Previously, in part 2, I arrived at the conclusion that the compilers class should focus on the design patterns and software engineering involved in constructing a compiler. I believe that our students would benefit more if the compiler is treated…
How Compiler Construction Remains Relevant (part 2)
At the end of part 1, I said that we, as educators, should “consider requiring a software engineering class that gives students practice with larger code bases, before allowing enrollment in compilers.” I’d now like to rescind that suggest in…
How Compiler Construction Remains Relevant (part 1)
Many students struggle with the compiler construction class here at UCI. I’d like to change that. Let me first lay down some groundwork, by giving some observations that I’ve made about the general lack of software engineering skills. Our students…
Higher-Order Functions in Java
This Summer I’ve been teaching Intro to Computer Languages. It’s a really awesome class, with alot of good material in it. Last week, my students got back the results of their midterms, and were disappointed in their scores. Immediately, I…
A language should be focused on writing Internal DSLs
I’ve been reading Martin Fowler’s book, Domain-Specific Languages, this weekend. He covered a number of ways in which you can structure your code to achieve what he terms an Internal DSL. Quite a bit is focused on the discussion of…
Considerations of Programming Language Design
Reddit modded up a nice review of Considerations When Designing your Own Programming/Scripting Language (it’s worth following the links provided there to Clementson’s Blog, to get a larger picture of the issue). There’s really a ton of stuff to think…