UNISA B.Sc. Informatics

Bar0n

Bar0n

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I'm trying to help out a friend who wants to obtain a B.Sc. degree in Informatics, and he's interested in the UNISA course (by the same name).

I've noticed however that INF1511 - Visual Programming is based on Delphi? Is there any UNISA degree which focuses on .NET development?

I'm convinced it'll be a waste of time doing a course which focuses on Delphi.
 
Khanya said:
Is it object-oriented? Be told a true programmer is not bound by language.
Click to expand...

True as that may be, we are looking for a .NET oriented course.

Does UNISA offer such a course?

I notice their diploma course offers VB (not .NET) and PHP instead of ASP.NET.

They seem slightly behind the times.
 
Reason they chose Delphi is that its one of the easiest languages to learn (lots of schools use it) and MARK. The delphi course/book was written by the instructors. The aim of the degree is to teach you how to program, not how to program in a specific language. Delphi contains all the fundamental aspects needed for good OOP with a GUI.
 
dyanamo said:
Reason they chose Delphi is that its one of the easiest languages to learn (lots of schools use it) and MARK. The delphi course/book was written by the instructors. The aim of the degree is to teach you how to program, not how to program in a specific language. Delphi contains all the fundamental aspects needed for good OOP with a GUI.
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Yep
It was easy to learn, and once you get the hang of it you'll be able to teach yourself another language easily enough
 
Bar0n said:
I'm trying to help out a friend who wants to obtain a B.Sc. degree in Informatics, and he's interested in the UNISA course (by the same name).

I've noticed however that INF1511 - Visual Programming is based on Delphi? Is there any UNISA degree which focuses on .NET development?

I'm convinced it'll be a waste of time doing a course which focuses on Delphi.
Click to expand...

Lol.

INF1511 and its followup is based on Delphi.
The rest of the degree focuses on C++.

I don't think any degree focuses on .NET... even Tuks changed their .NET modules to Java.
 
froot said:
Lol.

INF1511 and its followup is based on Delphi.
The rest of the degree focuses on C++.

I don't think any degree focuses on .NET... even Tuks changed their .NET modules to Java.
Click to expand...

UFS does. And I've heard of .NET modules being offered at Stellenbosch.

Regardless of all the comments about a programmer not being bound to a language and whatnot, am I correct in assuming that UNISA does not offer any .NET courses?
 
http://cs-cert.unisa.ac.za/index2.h...ction+to+Visual+Basic.Net+Programming+(70122)

VB and .Net
but its an introductory programming course not a "computer science" course. An undergraduate degree course should not focus on any programming language for basic pedagogical reasons. Regardless of the evil that is Delphi people seem to be prepared to buy into its bull**** and the easy to mark reason and aggressive presentation as a follow up to Pascal as a teaching language worked.
 
Paul Hjul said:
http://cs-cert.unisa.ac.za/index2.h...ction+to+Visual+Basic.Net+Programming+(70122)

VB and .Net
but its an introductory programming course not a "computer science" course. An undergraduate degree course should not focus on any programming language for basic pedagogical reasons. Regardless of the evil that is Delphi people seem to be prepared to buy into its bull**** and the easy to mark reason and aggressive presentation as a follow up to Pascal as a teaching language worked.
Click to expand...

What I want is a degree which focuses on "preparing" (yes it's vague and yes experience counts a lot, but you get my drift) a person for the majority of job opportunities available, of which the vast majority are .NET positions.
 
Bar0n said:
What I want is a degree which focuses on "preparing" (yes it's vague and yes experience counts a lot, but you get my drift) a person for the majority of job opportunities available, of which the vast majority are .NET positions.
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Your missing the point of a university degree.

A degree sets your foundations which apply across all languages. Its not there to skill you up for the immediate job market.

I'm currently finishing my BSc in Informatics this year with UNISA and will gladly explain to you and your friend the real value of this degree. Its also not a Computer Science degree so even if we did cover .NET, it would still not achieve what your looking for.

What it however does achieve is prepare me for the real world of development. I learn about the basic programming, design patterns, UML, database theory, management, project management, economics and even accounting. These are all skills I will use over my long career as a developer.

For .NET, I could learn that on the job as any .NET employer will know that at university your only getting about 2-3 months of real world development exposure over your degree.

To give an example my C++ modules combined could all be done in two months - thats 5 modules (5 x 6 months of studies). But the foundations of development taught in these modules is applied to my PHP development I do each and every day.

Don't think short term, think long term about your friends career instead.
 
Bar0n said:
What I want is a degree which focuses on "preparing" (yes it's vague and yes experience counts a lot, but you get my drift) a person for the majority of job opportunities available, of which the vast majority are .NET positions.
Click to expand...

Only on the job experience will get you there. Please look at an agency like Communicate Personal. Their .NET jobs are either for fresh BSc graduates with not .NET requirements or .NET experience of at leas 2 years with a BSc degree. Never a mention as .NET being part of your degree.

Also employers will not consider your subjects as work experience.

EDIT: And to "waster your time" even more, our BSc even requires us to develop in Assembler. Last used Assembler in 1994 when I was still playing around with Turbo Pascal but what I learnt from Assembler still applies to my current language of choice.
 
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I think Assembler is a very important part of a B.Sc Computer Science degree. It is subjects like that, that makes the difference between people that just learned a language and people that understand the "science" bit. Same for subjects on data structures etc.
 
cbrunsdonza said:
EDIT: And to "waster your time" even more, our BSc even requires us to develop in Assembler. Last used Assembler in 1994 when I was still playing around with Turbo Pascal but what I learnt from Assembler still applies to my current language of choice.
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I am not arguing with you. I agree with you that even a subject covering assembler is valuable. But what we are looking for, based on personal preference and opinion, is a degree in which .NET is covered.

I completely understand your point that just doing a few .NET courses does not make you a good .NET programmer, or even a good programmer, indeed it does not.

I also completely agree a programmer is not bound by language and should be comfortable with many languages.

That being said however, I believe C# .NET development is a good language to cover in a degree. I believe it adequately prepares you for OO programming. It is a widely used and popular language, and also fairly powerful. There are also several similarities between the syntax of C# and Java, C++, JavaScript, etc. Having covered C#, many other languages will already look familiar and less intimidating.

I do not see the point in covering a fossilised language like Delphi. I think C++ and Assembler are good languages to know, and in fact should be essential know-how for any decent programmer (C++ at least).

My primary concern with this course is any degree which still covers Delphi is probably lagging behind in more than one area.
 
edited my post, pushed submit by mistake :)

to elaborate: to me, "programming" is nothing to do writing code. it's about designing solutions to help make or save clients money. the fact that I dont know c++ does not hinder in anyway my ability to do this.

but, if I wanted to, I suppose, I could get a c++ job (but honestly, c++ to me, is horrible. people might like things like operator overloading, and find them useful, I dont, and have never needed to)
 
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_kabal_ said:
edited my post, pushed submit by mistake :)

to elaborate: to me, "programming" is nothing to do writing code. it's about designing solutions to help make or save clients money. the fact that I dont know c++ does not hinder in anyway my ability to do this.

but, if I wanted to, I suppose, I could get a c++ job (but honestly, c++ to me, is horrible)
Click to expand...

It's powerful and teaches a lot of important concepts, like memory management and pointers for example.
 
delphi taught me all those concepts, and was much more enjoyable.

if someone wants to think they are better than me, or I am rubbish, due to c++, their opinion is most likely worthless

on topic, it is a little strange that dephi is offered at Unisa. when I attempted to do a B CS with them about 8 years ago, dephi definitely wasnt one of the courses. (I know for sure that it wasnt, as I started my career with deplhi, so I would have noticed). all of the programming modules were c++
 
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