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Anyone take a course with Louis Hafer?

Acubo
edited April 2013 in General
I was taking CMPT125 too lightly and need to retake it; the prof teaching it during the summer is him. Rate my professor has very negative comments about how he teaches and grades a lower level course. Just wanted another opinion on if I should take the course now or in the fall. Since I'm retaking it, I was hoping knowing some of the material would help.

Comments

  • hehehe
    I haven't taken him as a teacher, however I've heard that he's not a good teacher. 

    In terms of programming, he doesn't teach a lot of syntax; only theory.

    I have to do CMPT 125 this summer, it's a total bummer. 
  • ryan
    I would take 125 as soon as you can, you will be limited in what cmpt courses you can take without it.
  • Acubo
    I'm kind of worried I won't do well. From what I have read the assignments are extremely hard for a beginner course.
  • hehehe
    I've heard the assignments are a total killer.

    I tried to do his first assignment for CMPT 135, and I couldn't even do half of it. 
  • ryan
    Here are his assignments for 135, which is the sosy equivalent of 125.

    To be honest it seems pretty straight forward. I would take 125 in the summer so that you can take 225 in the fall. Then you will be in good shape going forward pre-req wise.
  • Acubo
    Know any tips to succeed besides get my shit together?
  • hehehe
    Yea, watch these tutorials
  • Acubo
    Awesome. Thanks a lot.
  • Tofu
    I think it's a good thing that there is minimal syntax.
    Syntax is the easy part. But the logic and ideas are the hard part.
    If you took 120 then you should have a general idea of what languages can do.
    The homework revolves around you knowing what to do before you even touch code. If you can do that and come up with an outline on paper then coding is just building a house according to your blueprint. The thing with programming is that you have to practice with it like any language virtual or literal. And then as you learn how to plan out your ideas, you can start to code efficiently and proficiently. 

    I made the mistake of diving right into the code with no thought in how i would code it. And after a few hours, all i got was mess, i didn't finish what i was assigned and got stressed out. Keep that in mind. Mechanics and syntax is only your tools and you should know them well mostly by learning it and doing it yourself with practice. 
  • hehehe
    He teaches minimal syntax, by that I mean he teaches no syntax. 

    For example, in python you write printf("message here");, but in Java, you need like 8 lines of code to do that. He won't tell you what those 8 lines of code are, so you have to learn them on your own. He'll simply tell you to print the message. 

    Another example: Lets say you want to open a file, read it, and close it. That's the logic and idea, but what's the syntax? You need about 10 lines of syntax that Hafer won't teach. 

    I completely agree with you that learning the logic behind programming is important, but the logic is useless without the syntax. Furthermore, learning the syntax is more important than logic and idea's for introductory level courses like 125. 

    Keep in mind that this is introduction to object oriented programming. That means you need learn a lot of syntax like classes and objects. This course is meant to be heavy syntax based. CMPT 212/213 are more based on logic and idea's.

    I don't know about any of you, but i'm ready for a difficult semester.

    Btw, if anybody wants to study with me for 125, message me. We could share syntax, exchange idea's and stuff. 



  • lifeishard
    Lou Hafer is horrible...Please do not take him at all


  • ryan
    In java printing to the console is just as easy as in any other language. System.out.println("");. Also a quick Internet search will reveal how to easily read data in from a file. Tofu is right, syntax is the easy part, actually understanding what to do is the hard part.

    I think the idea of syntax is being elevated above its actual worth here. For example, syntactically, classes are just the keyword class, a class name, and a set of curly braces with a bunch of variables and methods in between. That's it. Mind you knowing this alone is not enough to write effective classes, that's where everything else you learn comes in
  • Poltergeist
    Lou is an excellent prof for CMPT125/126. if u study even moderately u will be fine in his course.

    get ur shit together ppl
  • iStudent
    Lou hafer is HORRIBLE. Honestly, he's the worst prof I've had at sfu so far. But, with that being said, 125 isn't very hard and I think Lou Hafer can't be that bad for the course. However, since you're retaking it, I would recommend waiting till someone else teaches that course. I had him for cmpt 150, and more than half the class failed.
  • bta31
    working on his assignment right now on writing recursive methods. i swear i am going to get 0
  • iStudent
    Lol we had an assignment for cmpt 150, where only 20% of the class actually handed it in.

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