I'm not suggesting anyone ought to know it off the top of their head. The only reason I remembered it is because I am a big fan of Raymond Smullyan's "To Mock a Mockingbird," the best introduction to Combinatoral Logic ever written:
As a result, I remember it as the Kestrel which he introduces in the same chapter as the Mockingbird, Identity Bird, and Lark.
But actually, I really don't expect anyone to remember it. My point was a little sarcastic, I was trying to point out that programming is at least as much about stuff you use regularly or read currently as it is about stuff you learned a few years ago.
If you don't use whatever you were taught, you will lose it. And if you learn it another way--I'm sure there are people who use #returning without knowing anything about combinbatoral logic--it might be just as good. Not knowing what a K combinator does is not particularly harmful to being an amazing software developer.
I am not denigrating a degree in computer science. I think it is an amazingly excellent way to start a career (be that working for others or yourself) in software development. But, OTOH, after a person has been working for a while, I think it carries less weight than what they have done with themselves since graduating.
If a really good degree leads to a really good first job, which leads to a better seond job, and so forth, I am all for the really good degree that started the process.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0192801422?ie=UTF8&tag=...
As a result, I remember it as the Kestrel which he introduces in the same chapter as the Mockingbird, Identity Bird, and Lark.
But actually, I really don't expect anyone to remember it. My point was a little sarcastic, I was trying to point out that programming is at least as much about stuff you use regularly or read currently as it is about stuff you learned a few years ago.
If you don't use whatever you were taught, you will lose it. And if you learn it another way--I'm sure there are people who use #returning without knowing anything about combinbatoral logic--it might be just as good. Not knowing what a K combinator does is not particularly harmful to being an amazing software developer.
I am not denigrating a degree in computer science. I think it is an amazingly excellent way to start a career (be that working for others or yourself) in software development. But, OTOH, after a person has been working for a while, I think it carries less weight than what they have done with themselves since graduating.
If a really good degree leads to a really good first job, which leads to a better seond job, and so forth, I am all for the really good degree that started the process.