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=2.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,FROM_NUMERIC_TLD, INVALID_MSGID,REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC 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: 1696ae,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid1696ae,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,6154de2e240de72a X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public From: steved@pacifier.com@199.2.117.163 (Steve Doiel) Subject: Re: Should I learn C or Pascal? Date: 1996/07/20 Message-ID: <4spj1f$prf@news.pacifier.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 168943921 references: <4sf9e7$kl7@news.jump.net> <4slt4p$9jj@ns.broadvision.com> <4sm83e$jkg@solaria.cc.gatech.edu> organization: Pacifier BBS, Vancouver, Wa. ((360) 693-0325) reply-to: steved@pacifier.com (Steve Doiel) newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.dos.programmer,comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-07-20T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Robert Dewar writes: [snip] >I still think the important thing at the start is to learn how to program. It >is worth using a language that is rich enough to introduce all the necessary >abstraction concepts (Borland Object Pascal, Ada 95, C++ meet this criterion, >this is not a complete list of course, but you get the idea). It is a >mistake to learn C to start with, since it lacks critical abstraction >features and so you will tend to miss the importance of data abstraction >and parametrization at the module level (it is not that this cannot be done >in C, just that you are unlikely to learn it if you start by learning C). Agreed. I have an academic background in Computer Information Science and Physics. Since then I have worked as a "Software Engineer" for the last ten years. Physics teaches problem solving. This involves breaking things down in an abstract manner to learn things about the physical world. IMHO Computer Science (really engineering) is best applied by breaking a a problem down to an abstract description, and then designing a software solution in terms of that abstraction. Pascal, Ada, Modula-2 (and more I'm sure) permit you to write software in what I would call "the problem domain". In my experience, people with a 'C' only background have great difficulty in understanding this form of abstraction. In 'C' I find that programmers talk about the types "integer", and "double". In Pascal I find that programmers talk about "inches" and "liters". I also think it's a lot easier to go from Pascal to C than from C to Pascal, although I did the first so it's hard to say. Steve Doiel