Why Johnny Can't Code
Linked by Kroc Camen on Mon 21st Jun 2010 19:49 UTC
General Development "For three years [my] son Ben, and I have engaged in a quixotic but determined quest: We've searched for a simple and straightforward way to get the introductory programming language BASIC to run on either my Mac or my PC. Why on Earth would we want to do that, in an era of glossy animation-rendering engines, game-design ogres and sophisticated avatar worlds? Because if you want to give young students a grounding in how computers actually work, there's still nothing better than a little experience at line-by-line programming." Looking beyond the immediate fear-inducing acronym BASIC, this article delves deeply into what it means to simply be in control--via a basic understanding of under the hood--of your own computer, and how our whiz-bang world of technology today is failing to bestow this understanding on this generation of would-be hackers.
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RE: shell scripting
by Carrot007 on Mon 21st Jun 2010 21:58 UTC in reply to "shell scripting"
Carrot007
Member since:
2008-02-04

I think you hit the nail on the head there.

I think people program in "language" these days.

Real programmers can program in any language given the manual and a few hours.

Yes even Lisp/Forth etc.

They are all just tools to get things done, if you cannot adapt to a new syntax you aint a programmer.

Reply Parent Score: 1

RE[2]: shell scripting
by Almafeta on Mon 21st Jun 2010 22:55 in reply to "RE: shell scripting"
Almafeta Member since:
2007-02-22

I think you hit the nail on the head there. I think people program in "language" these days. Real programmers can program in any language given the manual and a few hours. Yes even Lisp/Forth etc. They are all just tools to get things done, if you cannot adapt to a new syntax you aint a programmer.


We're not talking about what Real Programmers can do.

All Real Programmers were, at one point, ignorant kids. We Real Programmers need to remember what it was like to be a ignorant kid trying to make a way into this big grown-up world of programming, and make sure we're not making the learning curve too steep.

Reply Parent Score: 7

RE[2]: shell scripting
by vodoomoth on Tue 22nd Jun 2010 09:54 in reply to "RE: shell scripting"
vodoomoth Member since:
2010-03-30

Second 100% of that.

I'm currently looking for another job and I just can't believe how people put away my 12 years of experience in C++, my research years, my 6 years of teaching at the university. Most if not all of them are hypnotized by Java and say: "oh, you just have 2 years of experience in Java EE"...

I think to myself "hey stupid, Java and C++ are much alike! I left academia to work for a private company so why are you surprised at things that my résumé states clearly?"

I dare think, having recently returned to C++, that Java is a stripped-down, easier and more coherent version of C++. The rest is a question of being used to the libraries, which has nothing to do with the language.

How long does it take to know the syntax differences between Java and C++ as to control statement, class definitions, virtual functions or templatized classes? Really? More a couple of hours than one day. Definitely not years.

Reply Parent Score: 3