Why MIT switched from Scheme to Python (2009)

This is just an introductory language and if you’re in a CS program, you’ll definitely move on to more advanced ones. It actually makes sense to switch to Python since it’s far more ubiquitous and accessible than Scheme. Scheme is not widely used in commercial software development, but still enjoys a presence in academia. Python has strong presence in both.

On the other hand, Pascal was my “introductory” programming language (I already knew BASIC pretty well at that point), but it certainly wasn’t the only one in my program - we did Perl, Prologue, C, C++, etc.

In a professional software development career, it certainly won’t be the last language you’ll learn.

But this is the problem. Our premier academic institutions shouldn’t merely exist as job training programs for big tech.

If anything, tech is still one of the better off fields in the university.

Look at history or literature programs for where this is heading. I’d imagine that most literature majors don’t even read at all these days. As recent as 50 years ago, the requirement involved hundreds of pages of reading per week, over a sustained 4 year period.

Honestly, just close down the university at this point, if all it wants to do is print out degree certificates for social signaling in the job market.

I understand your feelings about this but on HN we still need you to follow the guidelines, which include avoiding uppercase for emphasis and avoiding personal swipes like this:

> I'm laughing at your naive take

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

What's more interesting is that it's their second account, because the previous one was banned. What's HN policy on ban evasion?

Previous account: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=oldpersonintx