Re: Education and security -- another perspective (was "ACM Queue - Content")

[Dana Epp <dana () vulscan com>]

What is wrong with this picture ?

I see both of you willing to mandate the teaching of C and yet not
mandate the teaching of any of Ada, Pascal, PL/I etc.

This seems like the teaching of "making do".


Hmmm, interesting point. In a particular set of learning objectives 
required to complete a credential (ie: CompSci, CIS etc) what do you 
recommend we sacrifice to put in all this teaching?


I don't pick C for C's sake. I choose C because ON AVERAGE, most 
students will be exposed to C more than the languages you suggest. 
Especially in the majority on industries hiring students out of university.


However, that said, I don't think the language matters past exposure to 
the industry. A strong foundation of programming skills should be 
language agnostic; loops are loops, recursion is recursion, conditions 
are conditions etc. Learning the syntax of the language to accomplish it 
is secondary. Knowing how a loop breaks down into machine instructions 
is the goal here. Not how to do it in Ada.


Think about it in reflection of a linguist doing translation at the 
United Nations. They didn't simply go and learn every particular 
language. They are trained in understanding the mechanisms of human 
speech and formal grammar, and they then apply it to the language they 
are learning. In other words, they work from their foundation of 
learning in grammar and then apply the syntax of the particular language 
they are translating. It makes learning new languages much easier, and 
much faster.


So too should be programming. If a student has a strong foundation of 
learning when it comes to programming, they can adapt to different 
computer languages that they are exposed to as it comes to them. C is a 
perfect language to use to quickly get those concepts across in a 
practical environment in universities. And more importantly, from a 
secure coding objective, you can show what NOT to do.


--
Regards,
Dana Epp
[Blog: http://silverstr.ufies.org/blog/]