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=0.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,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: 1696ae,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid1696ae,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,6154de2e240de72a X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,baaf5f793d03d420 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: nelson@cs.uwp.edu (Jeremy Nelson) Subject: Re: Should I learn C or Pascal? Date: 1996/07/22 Message-ID: <4t01v4$8a6@news.inc.net>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 170037220 references: <4sord0$l0k@solaria.cc.gatech.edu> organization: University of Wisconsin - Parkside newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.dos.programmer,comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-07-22T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article , >> >I am with Mr. Dewar on this one. What Jeremy is saying is like saying learn theology or >philosophy before you learn to read or write or even speak! You can't understand the >concepts of any discipline until you learn the language that describes that discipline. I think you missed your attributions here -- The only post i made in this thread was on an entirely different branch (the posting i made has not been followed up to yet, even), so just a friendly reminder to go back and make sure that you dont get me into a flame war that i never really intended to get into. ;-) >So for the original poster, does Mr. Nelson have a reference for the none language >specific programming? Please read my post again. What i said was "You arent really a programmer until you learn to solve problems." That does not preclude the ability to learn a computer language, but there is much more to programming then just producing semantically correct programs. You have to understand how to apply the nuances of the _appropriate_ language to get the _appropriate_ answer. FORTRAN is easy to learn, and works well for math computation problems. C is more difficult to learn, but can be used for most pragmatic problems. C++ is even more difficult to learn, but can be used for more abstract problems. lisp is easy to learn, and can be used for a very useful set of specific problems requiring a functional programming approach. Pascal is trivially easy to learn, and that was the point. Pure pascal is limited in its usefulness, but several enhanced dialects of pascal can be quite useful for what may be refered to as "user-land" problems. I dont believe pascal is an appropriate tool for system programming. I wouldnt write space shuttle software in lisp, but FORTRAN has done very well in this respect, for many years. As i said in my (one and only) post, "Not every language solves every problem. Programming is knowing which language to use at what time." And i might add also "And you also have to know how to use that language to get the computer to do the most work for you in the least amount of human-time." Programming is not about languages. Its about problem-solving using computers. Jeremy