Warp wrote:
> are tons of other places where they are useful as well... :)

Um, network protocols?

http://images.google.com/images?q=tcp+state+machine

> (which is completely transparent to everyone except maybe operating system
> developers).

Yes, there is such a difference. That's why I ask both questions.

And if I need you to figure out what's broken in the OS's paging algorithms 
in a year's time, I'd like you to know enough about the subject to be able 
to understand a tutorial on the topic.

I don't expect you to know how to program quantum computers, either, but I 
expect you to know what quantum computing *is*, to the point that you could 
fool the boss into thinking you know something about it. :-)

Anyway, that's one of many questions. If you're working for me, you'll 
probably never need a ray tracer, either. But it would be good for you to 
know that a ray tracer takes a 3D description and turns it into an image, 
for example.

You could say "I'll never need to know that" about every question on that 
entire list. A web designer doesn't need to know what a stop bit is or what 
priority inversion is. A hardware designer doesn't need to know why you'd 
want an index on a relational database table or what protocols web services 
use.  It's a breadth of knowledge thing.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Understanding the structure of the universe
    via religion is like understanding the
     structure of computers via Tron.

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