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Comment by nradov | Hacker News Reader

Syntax seems like a stupid thing to test in university level courses. That's trade school stuff. And I don't mean that as a criticism of trade schools, they just have a different focus.

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Syntax is not the focus of your testing, but it’s often a pre-requisite to be clearly and accurately speaking the same language. Think not of taking off points for missing a semicolon but instead understanding the difference between the syntax for a method call and a property access. The different syntax conveys different meaning and so we should expect some basic level of accuracy to the language in question. At least that’s how I see it.

Marking at scale is hard to maintain that consistency though. It’s not whether the exam writer sees it that way, it’s whether the markers understand intent and objective over pedantic nuance

OK I'll bite. What's the difference between a method call and a property access? And why would that matter for pedagogical purposes?

Syntax is a stupid thing to test in trade school. That's compiler stuff.

Knowledge is built on foundations. Knowing syntax in one language is necessary to be able to do anything practical, which interacts with theory. You build valuable schema of the world by iterative theory and practice.

Nah. Syntax is trivial and irrelevant for teaching CS theory.

Do you think spelling is trivial and irrelevant in a foreign language class?

That's a poor comparison given they said CS theory.

I could easily imagine a CS theory course that doesn't involve any programming language at all.

Yes, there are some university CS courses on topics like discrete mathematics, theory of computation, and ethics that don't involve any programming.

Gotta know your math syntax in those classes

In 2026? Absolutely.

Would you say the same thing for teaching math or music?

Lambda calculus?!

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