Disillusionment with Usenix tutorial

[Don Libes]

I didn't fill out an evaluation form at the end of the class because I
didn't stay till the end.  I walked out at the first break.

But first I checked with the teacher to see if he was really going to
continue at the elementary level.  He stated that he was.  He also said
that this was not his choice of material, but that the course syllabus
was given to him by the Usenix tutorial organizers.

He didn't agree that this course was elementary, but he acknowledged
that it certainly wasn't advanced.

I write a regular magazine column on "intermediate"-level C programming
and believe me, that course didn't begin to cover material that my
column assumes people have a good understanding of.  For example, he
assumed that people did not know what pointers were.  Really!!

While I'm on the subject, just what is the point of offering courses
like "Elementary C programming" or "Elementary shell programming" or "An
Introduction to UNIX" at a Usenix conference?  The conference is
supposed to cater to experienced UNIX users, no?  You're not going to go
to AAAI or SIGGraph to get an introduction to AI or graphics, are you?

Don Libes	{seismo,umcp-cs}!nbs-amrf!libes