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: fc89c,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gidfc89c,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,baaf5f793d03d420 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,6154de2e240de72a X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Tim Behrendsen" Subject: Re: What's the best language to start with? [was: Re: Should I learn C or Pascal?] Date: 1996/08/17 Message-ID: <01bb8c89$9023e3e0$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 174795212 references: <01bb846d$c6c01780$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com> <840288278snz@genesis.demon.co.uk> content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 organization: A-SIS mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-08-17T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Lawrence Kirby wrote in article <840288278snz@genesis.demon.co.uk>... > In article <01bb846d$c6c01780$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com> > tim@airshields.com "Tim Behrendsen" writes: > > >Who's talking about showing them? I would suggest that if > >they wrote a quicksort in assembler, they will have a much > >better "feel" for the algorithm, than if they wrote it in C. > > They might have a good feel for how to implement quicksort in that > particular machine code however it would be so wrapped up in > implementation details that they wouldn't have a good understanding of > the algorithm itself, at last not in the same timescale. And they don't get wrapped up in implementation details if they write it in C? My primary point is when it's implemented in assembly, and you have to manually move the bytes from one location to another rather than have the compiler "carry them for you", you get a better view feel for not only what the algorithm is doing, but what the computer itself is doing. The most important thing a student can learn about computers is the fundamentally simple nature. The mystery of execution *must* be broken down in order for the student to being to think like a programmer. Once they can think like a programmer, all the rest of the knowledge they learn becomes trivial. -- Tim Behrendsen (tim@airshields.com)