The classified ad read, “Cobol programmer wanted,” yet earlier in the year the professor had distinctly and repeatedly sullied that language’s name, calling it the most useless on the face of the earth.

Instead, the student was told that one should learn a pure language, well-structured, with elegant constructs and an easy syntax … something along the lines of Pascal. Now if only the job market would realize this too, and offer jobs where Pascal is the language of choice.

This situation arises far too often today, especially at the university level where the languages taught often have little bearing upon the industry’s immediate needs.

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