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

[Fernando Schapachnik <fernando () mecon gov ar>]

En un mensaje anterior, ljknews escribió:
> At 1:56 PM -0700 7/7/04, Dana Epp wrote:
>
> > 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.
>
> Primarily because that is what universities use for training.
>
> Originally because Unix was so cheap for educational institutions.
>
> I smell a vicious circle.

I smell a discusion going nowhere. What is the point of teaching a languague?
Teach them to program in a paradigm (better, in all of them, and give them the
tools to make educated choices about which is better for each context), and
choose any language as an *example* of the paradigm.

Latter on, they can pick the particularities of any language by a book.
Remember: don't give them fishes, teach them how to fish.

Having said that, giving a quick overview of C seems like a good idea when
teaching about security, because you can easily show examples of all types of
problems (I think is important, however, to make it clear that their represent a
class of problems, and can happen in many languages, not only in C).

Regards, Fernando.