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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, MSGID_SHORT 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: 103376,97188312486d4578 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,6154de2e240de72a X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 10db24,4cf070091283b555 X-Google-Attributes: gid10db24,public From: joe@bftsi0.UUCP (Joe Foster) Subject: Re: What's the best language to learn? [was Re: Should I learn C or Pascal?] Date: 1996/08/15 Message-ID: <7084@bftsi0.UUCP>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 174308917 references: <4u7hi6$s2b@nntp.seflin.lib.fl.us> <4uo74j$95p@ns.broadvision.com> organization: Barbara Foster Tax Service, Inc. followup-to: comp.edu newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer Date: 1996-08-15T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article , dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes: > Tim says > ""abstraction" question, it's a question of breaking it down > into fundamental steps of data transformations. Testing a > number as even is transforming a number into a bit based on > its evenness property." > Well it is certainly easy to see why you like to teach assembler early, > and to me, your viewpoint is a good example of why I do NOT like that > approach, you have an unrelenting low level viewpoint of things, for > example what on EARTH from a semantic point of view does a test for > evenness > have with a "bit", nothing at all! IMHO, the low level view of things provides an excellent foundation upon which to build higher-level abstractions. A thorough knowledge of what's really going on inside that beige box has helped me many times when a higher level tool didn't do quite what I expected or when tracking down a C/C++ pointer or compiler bug, or when deciding when to abandon a 4GL in favor of some good old C code. Even though I rarely even see assembly code these days, I wouldn't part with the discipline assembly programming has given me for anything. For me, using a tool without an understanding of its workings would be like building on quicksand. For example, an inadequate understanding of how a particular RDBMS worked led me to design a report that brought the server to its knees, and only research into the RDBMS' workings allowed me to redesign the queries to give the same results with much less demands on the server. -- Joe Foster (joe@bftsi0.gate.net or joe%bftsi0@uunet.uu.net) WARNING: I cannot be held responsible for the above They're coming to because my cats have apparently learned to type. take me away, ha ha!