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From: "Tim Behrendsen" <tim@airshields.com>
Subject: Re: What's the best language to start with? [was: Re: Should I learn
 C or Pascal?]
Date: 1996/08/02
Message-ID: <01bb8023$4bfe7a80$96ee6fcf@timhome2>#1/1
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references: <sperlman-0507961717550001@p121.ezo.net>
 <01bb73e3.1c6a0060$6bf467ce@dave.iceslimited.com>
 <1996Jul20.124025.122789@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
 <tequila-2007961836190001@tequila.interlog.com>
 <01bb7b06$311fabc0$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com>
 <dewar.838609515@schonberg> <01bb7da1$323102a0$96ee6fcf@timhome2>
 <31FDFB6C.2781E494@att.com> <dewar.838737842@schonberg>
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newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.ada
Date: 1996-08-02T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


Robert Dewar <dewar@cs.nyu.edu> wrote in article
<dewar.838737842@schonberg>...
> Paul said
> 
> "We have had CS students on placement here after 2 years of study who
> didn't even understand hexedecimal !."
> 
> Perhaps they might have understood hexadecimal
>                                       ^
> 
> yes, yes, I know, I make more spelling errors than most on newsgroup
> posts because I type in furiously and do not bother to correct, but
> this one was hard to resist :-)
> 
> I actually don't find it so terrible for CS students with two years
> of study not to know hexadecimal notation. I would be more disturbed
> if they did not know and understand what an abstract data type was,
> or what call by reference means.

Yes, but if they don't even know what hexadecimal is (or by extension
the fundamentals), do they *really* understand what an abstract data
type is, or what call by reference means?  I'm sure they could quote
the book definition, but do they really *understand* it?

-- Tim Behrendsen (tim@airshields.com)