Should we still be teaching C and C++ to new programmers in 2025? If you could change the way programming is taught today, what would you change?
This question is more geared for those recently out of school and just starting out their careers, as I'm not sure those of us who have been in the workforce for years/decades, unless we have a career in academia, even know how Computer Science courses are taught today.
Jump to Post— rproffitt 3,266Which market?
The market in my circles is/was embedded. Look up MicroChip PIC controller offers. Yup, C.
In the smallest of the controllers you program in Assembler.
Whichever language is taught today you need to know the basics so you can try to catch a ride on a fast moving …
Which market?
The market in my circles is/was embedded. Look up MicroChip PIC controller offers. Yup, C.
In the smallest of the controllers you program in Assembler.
Whichever language is taught today you need to know the basics so you can try to catch a ride on a fast moving train.
OK, so then, yes, answer the question from the context of embedded development. Should Comp Sci 101 still be teaching C/C++ or Javascript and Python and AI prompt engineering?
In the context of embedded development you also would likely have classes in electronic design.
Why? Because some designs use such small microcontrollers that there is no RAM at all, unless you count registers. Example: AT24C02 which I used a few times. Very cheap part used on remote controls for TVs and such.
With zero RAM, it's all assembler. You may think this would be impossible to do anything at all.
It's not like I took a class in assembler, it was the basics that you needed. The basic instructions were move a byte from here to there, is an input a 0 or a 1, counting, decrementing, loops and communications. Serial Ports, Infrared communications, and so on.
Comp Sci 101 still needed as many arrive without knowing bits, bytes and what a small CPU is made of.
My computer science bachelor's degree also required a bunch of engineering courses, including digital circuitry with a breadboard, as well as an assembly course. The same degree also included a web development course taught in python. This was 2000-2005 for me (I took an extra year to graduate due to prioritizing a bunch of personal health stuff as well as starting DaniWeb and switching to night courses only).
I'm not saying that computer science wouldn't still be required today. Just if you would have it function differently in any meaningful way from when you went through it.
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