The design of the UNIX operating system
The design of the UNIX operating system
The dimensions of variation in the teaching of data structures
Proceedings of the 9th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
Resolved: objects early has failed
Proceedings of the 36th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
Novice Java programmers' conceptions of "object" and "class", and variation theory
ITiCSE '05 Proceedings of the 10th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
The computer science debate: it's a matter of perspective
ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
Proceedings of the 37th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
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This paper examines computing academics' conceptions of the Unix operating system, and the purpose of teaching Unix. Interview transcripts from nine academics were analysed phenomenographically. A small number of qualitatively different conceptions of Unix were identified, within two broad categories. The first broad category manifested a technical approach to Unix. Within this broad category, the conceptions of Unix were, from the least to most sophisticated --- (1) Unix as a set of unrelated commands; (2) Unix as a command line interface superior to GUIs; and (3) Unix as a problem solving tool. The second broad category was a non technical conception of Unix, in which Unix was seen as a resource that is cheap, secure and robust. With regard to teaching Unix, two broad categories of reasons were identified --- practical and pedagogical. These results for teachers are broadly consistent with an earlier phenomenographic study of student conceptions of Unix.