From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: *** X-Spam-Status: No, score=3.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, RATWARE_MS_HASH,RATWARE_OUTLOOK_NONAME autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 109fba,baaf5f793d03d420 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: fc89c,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gidfc89c,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 10db24,4cf070091283b555 X-Google-Attributes: gid10db24,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,6154de2e240de72a X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public From: "Tim Behrendsen" Subject: Re: What's the best language to learn? [was Re: Should I learn C or Pascal?] Date: 1996/08/14 Message-ID: <01bb8a3c$6158c8e0$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 174239094 references: <4u7hi6$s2b@nntp.seflin.lib.fl.us> <4uo74j$95p@ns.broadvision.com> <01bb8950$2c8dcc60$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com> <4urmvu$dfp@solutions.solon.com> <01bb89f1$31be4f60$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com> content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 organization: A-SIS mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer Date: 1996-08-14T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Robert Dewar wrote in article ... > Tim says > > ""abstraction" question, it's a question of breaking it down > into fundamental steps of data transformations. Testing a > number as even is transforming a number into a bit based on > its evenness property." > > Well it is certainly easy to see why you like to teach assembler early, > and to me, your viewpoint is a good example of why I do NOT like that > approach, you have an unrelenting low level viewpoint of things, for > example what on EARTH from a semantic point of view does a test for > evenness > have with a "bit", nothing at all! Well, I mean a "bit" in an abstract unit-of-information way; it either is or it isn't. Actually, the reality would probably be an AND with 0x01, which would give you a bit (or the "operation was zero" status bit). -- Tim Behrendsen (tim@airshields.com)