Should schools force the use of legacy systems?

[wallace]

At my university there is an old server that runs Sun OS 5.9 which one of the professors insists that our programs run on. Do you think that's fair? Most of my class complains because they either write code on their own UNIX machines and then have to port them, or write them on the Suns in the lab (running Sun OS 10) and then are forces to backwards port them.

She's the only professor that does this, everyone else that I've had has given us a choice between Sun 10, OSX, or Windows. Does using dead technology have any purpose that you can think of?

Sorry for the rant, I just got finished typing a program and am about to go through the backwards port process.

[LooseCaboose]

You mean: Should you write portable code? The answer is yes. SunOS 5.9 (Solaris 9) was released in 2002/2003, its hardly legacy. It should also be fairly posix compliant which means that porting code (at least from another Unix) shouldn't be a problem.

If you are having trouble porting code between, for example, Linux and SunOS, then you are probably doing something like making use of non-portable features (which may or may not be present in future versions). What exactly is causing you problems when "backwards porting"? Also, weren't you just complaining in another thread about how operating systems and applications don't have enough backwards compatibility for your taste?

She's the only professor that does this, everyone else that I've had has given us a choice between Sun 10, OSX, or Windows. Does using dead technology have any purpose that you can think of?

When you get a job in the industry, you will not have this choice. There is plenty of legacy hardware and software still in use. Companies still have machines running Windows 3.1, Dos and versions of Unix which don't even exist anymore. If you learn to write portable code then you can develop your software on the latest and greatest platform and then easily move it to an older system for a client. You can't tell customers: "Oh sorry, thats a legacy system, we only develop for operating systems that were released this year".

In the realworld people are having to develop software that will work on all different kinds of architectures (portable between 32 and 64 bit sometimes), operating systems (try doing Windows/Unix portablility) and environments. I have friends who do web development, whose entire job is to maintain compatibility between browsers. If they have customers who use some crappy old browser such as IE 5, then they will write code to support it.

[Kevin_theprogrammer]

At my university there is an old server that runs Sun OS 5.9 which one of the professors insists that our programs run on. Do you think that's fair?

Many times dated servers are used. CP/M servers have been used up until the 90s even though they were clearly dated simply because they worked or they had software unobrainable on other OSes.

Most of my class complains because they either write code on their own UNIX machines and then have to port them, or write them on the Suns in the lab (running Sun OS 10) and then are forces to backwards port them.

You shouldn't be programming on that thing unless your nostalgic or have to deal with patching the thing.

She's the only professor that does this, everyone else that I've had has given us a choice between Sun 10, OSX, or Windows. Does using dead technology have any purpose that you can think of?

On the contrary, many Unix systems use many of the same technologies used years ago on System V. For example rc.
In terms of programming:
1. Older operating systems are less capable than newer ones - you learn to program lightly via the limits of the machine that can run it. Thus you do not produce bloated, terrible applications for today's computers.
2. Older operating systems such as DOS do not "wipe your ass" for you when you program. Nothing is given to you and you learn to make these things on your own rather than popping in OpenGL and using the sound subsystems already there for you.
In terms of everything else:
3. Nostalgia.
4. Older operating systems sometimes have applications that have not been programmed for newer systems.
5. Older operating systems just work, and often there is no need to upgrade because this old technology works perfectly fine for the purpose it has been given.