[ProgSoc] TFM: Time For Modification

sanguinev at progsoc.org sanguinev at progsoc.org
Tue Jun 16 07:25:12 EST 2009


Tomislav Bozic wrote:
> It's official: TFM 2003/4 has now been consigned to history!
>
> Now that we have run out of print copies (we ran out some months ago), I
> decided that it was best to post the complete text online [1] and
> designate it as 'deprecated'.
>
> [snip]
>
> - Chapters about the club should be updated to reflect the current state
> of the club (and our registration system should be fixed so that we can
> boast about our registration system in the new TFM).
>
> - Likewise, chapters about UTS.
>   
Do you have suggestions for main topics/themes regarding UTS? "Life 
outside building 10" perhaps?
> - Perhaps condense the chapters on e-mail. Update.
>
> - Ambivalent about retaining chapters on HTML and CSS. Useful as it may be
> to know it, hardly anyone makes their own personal home page anymore (it's
> mostly blogs and social networking nowadays - no knowledge of HTML
> required). Also, we don't want course content overlap.
>   
By all means update the information on HTML and CSS, but considering 
that some knowledge is useful for:
- coding web pages (HTML, PHP, ASP, Perl...)
- knowing why a web page is broken
- hand building pages
- working in places where you can use raw HTML (wiki's, blog's, forums, 
etc.)
> - Keep Usenet. Still reasonably popular.
>
> - Scrap IRC and MUD. Both still have their fervent fans, but in relative
> terms, not as popular as it used to be. Read about it in an earlier TFM.
>   
If UTS didn't block IRC I would be suggesting it as a resource for 
students. While there is a lost of junk out there - there is also some 
good places (freenode for us programming type people for example).
> - Condense desktop environment chapters into one. Talk about KDE as well.
>
> - Update the Linux chapter. Good chance for me to shamelessly plug John
> Elliot's and my LFS project [3] :P
>   
Interested to see what you have in mind.
> - Who uses the C shell?
>
> - Perhaps someone studying law at the moment could give the copyright
> chapter a look-over.
>
> - Restore the chapter on Haskell. Update it. Do they teach functional
> programming at the undergrad level at UTS? We should be writing more about
> programming in general. Isn't this what this club is (ostensibly) about?
>   
I don't think they teach functional programming at all (except for 
incidentally in the sense that they might teach javascript which can be 
functional). I would be up for working on the Haskell chapter (and or 
something that aids general understanding of how to program with 
functional examples).
> - It has been suggested that we have chapters on basic computer science
> and discrete mathematics/probability.
>   
All the things you should be aware of to be a decent programming. Some 
things I have had in mind here:
- basic set theory
- big O notation
- graphs and trees
- definition of an algorithm
- probability
- etc.
Maybe also a mini/sub-section on keywords in computer 
science/programming (such as computable, NP-hard, termination, 
strong/weak/static/dynamic typing, etc.)
> * How will we be going about writing it? Do we do it the old-fashioned way
> and write LaTeX-formatted text contained within a revision control
> repository or do we just edit a wiki? Either way, a centralised, managed
> approach is best as far as collaborative works are concerned.
>   
In true ProgSoc style, whoever does something first can invite the 
others to join in... so if someone REALLY wants a wiki/latex/svn/... 
then set it up.
> * When do we intend on publishing it? I'd like to see a new edition out
> early next year, but that would probably be wishful thinking...
>   
When it's ready. Nothing to stop a draft/alpha version being released if 
it is workable for new members.
> * In what formats shall it be published? Print? Online? Both?
>   
Definitely a print version, I'm ambivalent about an online one as well.
> It would be great if we put our combined efforts into this project. It
> would bring us together and give our club a(nother) purpose (if only for a
> while). At the very least, we should do it for posterity, so that we can
> have another 'technology time capsule' to present to them.
>
> Tom
>
> [1] http://www.progsoc.org/tfm/tfm03/toc2003.html
>
> [2] http://www.progsoc.org/wiki/index.php/AGM_20090326#Future_of_TFM
>
> [3] http://wiki.progsoc.org/doku.php?id=awesomo-lfs
>
>   




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