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=1.4 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_50,INVALID_MSGID 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: 1014db,6154de2e240de72a X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: enikitin@junior.apk.net (Eric W. Nikitin) Subject: Re: What's the best language to start with? [was: Re: Should I learn C or Pascal?] Date: 1996/08/02 Message-ID: <4tt4rq$p6q@nerd.apk.net>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 171573807 references: <01bb73e3.1c6a0060$6bf467ce@dave.iceslimited.com> <1996Jul20.124025.122789@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <01bb7b06$311fabc0$87ee6fce@timpent.airshields.com> <31FBC584.4188@ivic.qc.ca> <4toc18$4j0@ns3.iamerica.net> <3200F638.167E@hso.link.com> followup-to: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.ada organization: Akademia Pana Kleksa, Public Access Uni* Site newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-08-02T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Sam Harris (s_harris@hso.link.com) wrote: : In fact, while in garrison, a soldier is held ultimately responsible : for his weapon from time of issuance until it is returned to the : armoury and is expected to do all the cleaning and stripping : personally. No one else does it because the soldier must know : how to quickly disassemble and clear or even repair the weapon : in a dark, wet hole in no man's land. : In addition to those hard realities of military life, knowing those : intimate details of the workings of the weapon does indeed enable : the soldier to use it to better effect. Military specs on performance : envelops are always conservative. A knowledgeble soldier with the : weapon in the hand knows better how far the performance can be pushed. : When I was an Air ROTC cadet, I wanted to be a pilot. In that program, : you got 7 hours of flight instruction, 1 hour for solo, 3 hours of : additional instruction including more solos. The 12th hour was a : flight test. The candidate was expected to perform at the level of : 40 hours of flight instruction. The reasoning being, if the candidate : did not have the talent to "pick it up" that quickly, then performance : would never be acceptable at the Air Force level. As a personal note, : after 7 hours, I was a competant pilot as long as everything went : a-okay, but I was no where near ready for the flight test. Like : Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations." How many hours did you spend disassembling/reassembling/repairing the plane?