From someone who got his MSCS at Drexel, this is used to avoid someone copying code from the Internet and submitting it as their own. Sure people have tried to rename variables, and method / function names...but from what I have heard, they have been caught. The problem is the student didn't understand what they were doing, so structurally the code was the same, they just tried to change things. I don't know all he details of how it works, but the comparison is done a multiple levels (i.e. source, obj, and exe), and due to compiler optimizations patterns do emerge....

None of the professors (at least in my experience) have a problem with students referencing outside source, figuring out what it does, and then writing THEIR OWN CODE to solve the problem.

To lgw's post...
* If you are a stupid apprentice trying to pass someone else's code as your own, it will catch you.
* If you are a journeyman reading the book, trying to understand the concepts and use an internet code example for reference and then write your own code based your readings and the code example for guidance, you are probably going to be fine
* If you are a master, why do you need examples...you are a master...go code the damn thing yourself...

Your missing the point...The education restrictions are for the "fodder" that will take the brunt of the attack. Sorry to be blunt, but there is no need to teach advanced concepts to these people in the minds of ISIS, all the "fodder" needs to do is be fanatical and follow orders until death do them part.

Long term the social elite will still be educated to a very high level, most with post graduate degrees from western universities. So the society will last. Restricting education is just a means of keeping the poor in their place and making it easier to use them as tools.

Again sorry to be blunt, but that is how I see it...

No what you should really pity is the educational system (pre-college) in the U.S. The U.S. is in sore need to invest in the future of education system. Our kids our consistently graduating from High School with a substandard knowledge base in most fields (especially science). Granted this is on a state by state basis since states define their own curriculum, but generally speaking we are doing a disservice to our children as they leave High School.

I would be curious to see if you could compare Canada to specific US states (such as Massachusetts).

HTML and CSS are very much akin to Perl. They are interpreted languages, meaning some other compiled application reads them and then decides how to interpret the commands. For lack of a better way of putting it, these are scripting languages.

In comparison, languages like C#, C++, etc.. are compiled into machine language (yes there are CLRs and other associated binaries).

This does not diminish the fact that HTML / CSS developers are in fact programming at the presentation layer, but it does mean that HTML / CSS are "scripting" languages (again I am using "scripting" for lack of a better term, and by no means do I mean it to demean the skills required code in HTML / CSS vs. C#).

From a theoretical perspective there is a difference. From a programming perspective the differences get much much grayer.

-Andy