This is the key - they're repackaging a bunch of the same exercises with slightly different language. Once you have a collection of the tools they expect you to have (or did, in the 70's!) and can recognize where they're called for, you're good to go. And the set of tools isn't really _that_ expansive, and they're often very old school techniques.
I'm sure some of those tools would be useful in industry, it's just I haven't really seen that in 23 years ... but you never know! It's got an acedemic curiosity that I appreciate, it's just its utility is so low generally.
It's bizarre the roadbumps we put in front of new devs. I'd rather see:
- someone hack on a big but unknown piece of code. Open source even, and map out what it would take to add a feature, what tests they would write, where the touchpoints are, etc.
- pair with someone - are they able to work with people?
- fix a bug: go through methodically, especially on non-deterministic failures
- lay out a system using objects / functionally / whathaveyou
Or just have me implement towers of hanoi again, ick.
I'm sure some of those tools would be useful in industry, it's just I haven't really seen that in 23 years ... but you never know! It's got an acedemic curiosity that I appreciate, it's just its utility is so low generally.
It's bizarre the roadbumps we put in front of new devs. I'd rather see: - someone hack on a big but unknown piece of code. Open source even, and map out what it would take to add a feature, what tests they would write, where the touchpoints are, etc. - pair with someone - are they able to work with people? - fix a bug: go through methodically, especially on non-deterministic failures - lay out a system using objects / functionally / whathaveyou
Or just have me implement towers of hanoi again, ick.