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=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_40,INVALID_MSGID 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: 1696ae,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid1696ae,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,6154de2e240de72a X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: turnage@cc.gatech.edu (Jason Alan Turnage) Subject: Re: Should I learn C or Pascal? Date: 1996/07/19 Message-ID: <4sord0$l0k@solaria.cc.gatech.edu>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 169684473 references: <4rs76l$aqd@ccshst05.uoguelph.ca> <4sdlco$rtl@nntp.seflin.lib.fl.us> <4sf9e7$kl7@news.jump.net> <01bb74ac$b7aa7860$7b91f780@deangulo> <01bb7591$83087d60$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com> followup-to: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.dos.programmer,comp.lang.ada organization: College of Computing, Georgia Tech newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.dos.programmer,comp.lang.ada nntp-posting-user: turnage Date: 1996-07-19T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: johnf (johnf@nando.com) wrote: : OK : I am one of these newbies. : I haven't programmed anything, ever, with any language. : I am currently learning C with the help of Dave Mark (Learn C on Mac) as : my baptism into programming. : So, I am I only learning C, and not "how to program"? I don't understand : how the two can be exclusive. : How does one learn how to be a "Good Programmer" without picking a : language to learn first, learning it well, then learning others as they : interest you? Never, never, never try to start learning a language before you learn how to program. A good algorithm simply cannot be replaced, and learning how to write an alogrithm is in programming, not in learning a language. You can sit down and read a hundred books about how to use pointers and linked lists in c++, and you still won't know how to use them in a good manner, if at all. Here at GA Tech, in the first computer course you can take, a pseudo language is taught so that the real objective of the class, algorithm teaching, won't be disturbed by students trying to jump the gun and diving in to any one language. This pseudo language is a mixture of c, pascal, and a few other languages, along with some non-language stuff like 'var1 isa number', so the non-programmers can understand it. Probably half or more students going into a programming major here have never programmed before, and would be totally lost in the second computer programming course (programming in pascal) if they hadn't taken this course first. : I am not trying to be a wise guy, just a guy who can learn to program well : enough to get out of his crappy job and into this (for me) exciting field : as a career. : I don't expect to start as the Sr. Developer on some project, I will : happily slog it out in the trenches and pay my dues, just explain to me : how to get there... The best programmers can do anything on a computer, absolutely anything that the computer will let them do, and sometimes even more. And these are the guys that make the money. And the only way to become one of these guys is to learn how to program. Once you learn how to program, a language is no problem, it's the easy part. If you start with learning a language, you'll have one hell of a time if you ever have to learn another language, or better yet, to convert your current code to another language. Good luck. -- Jason Turnage Georgia Tech turnage@cc.gatech.edu www.prism.gatech.edu/~gt8678a