Java vs Twenty-Twenty

I always have this opinion: Teaching Java as the first programming language to a Computer Science graduate even before teaching the fundamentals of computers and computing, is not going to produce any quality developers and computer science professionals. Of late I started comparing this with how 20-20 is spoiling cricket.

Why is teaching Java as the first programming language a Twenty-Twenty affair? Simply because when you throw open a gamut of libraries and ask a developer to use it to program his application without even teaching the fundamentals of algorithms, why libraries are needed, how to develop modular and object oriented systems etc., he forgets to think what happens behind the scenes and how those libraries are implemented, in what thread context a particular interface method is invoked by the run-time, how are the Java threads implemented, how are they scheduled etc.,.

Compare this with introducing Twenty-Twenty to young kids who learn to play cricket. They will start forgetting that the fundamentals of cricket lie in a solid defense, strong temperament, concentration and will power to last against the odds. Classic case is Yuvraj Singh who seems all lost when facing quality opposition in test cricket.

I don’t have anything against Java as a programming language. But when I see engineers claiming to be “expert Java programmers” lack even the basic skills it becomes very tough to manage a product with them. They increasingly struggle while trouble shooting issues. Even if they study the java documentation and go through it they don’t understand how it works. It is for this reason; I discourage recruiting the so called “Java experts” without sound fundamentals.

Why is it still a distant dream to get more Olympic medals for India?

Everyone is happy that India, for the first time in history, got more than 2 medals in an Olympics and the media are gaga over it. They even started predicting 10+ medals for India in London 2012. Though me too is confident that one day India will reach there, I am skeptical if it would be within four years. Here are my reasons.

We keep cribbing about government not spending enough for sporting infrastructure. Where will the money come from when the taxes collected is not sufficient even for our basic needs and defense?.

Does our Indian education system impart the value in our citizens to be duty bound towards our country and pay our taxes? Does it give importance to the moral and ethical responsibilities of a citizen to be taught at school level? It all starts from the exam system by giving more importance to marks than knowledge and hence making the student get it by all means, even if unethical. A value less education produces tons of graduates and our GDP is also increasing but income to the government is still less. How can the government spend on sporting infrastructure when there are hundreds of basic necessities to be fulfilled?

The second malady of our exam based education system is it inherently discourages sports. In the mad race to secure perfect 100 in all subjects in board exams who will look at practicing sports?

Unless a change happens at this grass root level we can only dream of becoming a sporting super power. We will produce a few gems here and there but they will come up despite the system and not due to it. Miles to go .... but lets keep the hope...