Re: Fun with C

["Elias Salomão Helou Neto" <eshneto@gmail.com>]

On Apr 23, 4:23 am, "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mail...@dmitry-kazakov.de>
wrote:
> On Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:08:33 -0700 (PDT), Elias Salomão Helou Neto wrote:
>
> > On Apr 22, 6:21 am, "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mail...@dmitry-kazakov.de>
> > wrote:
>
> >> Nevertheless, future professional programmers should never be exposed to C
> >> as the first language. It is like teaching physics in the school. Pupils
> >> first learn the physics of XIX century. When they made 3/4, they are told:
> >> guys, that was wrong! Here is how it goes! Programmers must learn concepts
> >> and techniques which C cannot illustrate. What C can illustrate is how not
> >> to program.
>
> > When it comes to physics, the main reason to teach classical
> > mechanical is that it is actually a good approximation to modern
> > theories and the math is far more simple. Nobody will say "guys, that
> > was wrong!" because that is not wrong, it just must be used within its
> > valid limits.
>
> I heard that wrong argument so many times.

Certainly you've not heard it from good physicists, but from rather
stupid ones. Let me state it clearly: Classical Mechanics isn't wrong
at all. It is the best and most useful approximation for a wide range
of phenomena. Why would someone use Quantum Mechanics or Relativity to
compute velocities when designing an automatic train control system?

> > Rockets reached the moon based on computations that used
> > classical Newtonian mechanics.
>
> So? Linux was written in C, does it justify C?

I was justifying Classical Mechanics. But Linux' success kind of
justifies C as a system language, but let us not argue on that.

> [I hope your students do not build rockets (:-))]

I hope they eventually will. I just hope they do not use C.

> > It is quite different with programming languages, as C is actually
> > harder than Pascal, which is a great tool for teaching programming.
>
> In which sense is C harder? I bet students find it simple. It is hard to
> teach concepts of software design on example of C?

Bauhaus explained it very well. And why on earth would I be teaching
software design on an introductory course on programming? It is much
more about algorithm, data structures and the language itself.

> But Newtonian mechanics
> is perfect for teaching cosmology, quantum effects, optics, fields etc?

Do you want to teach this stuff to high school students? I don't get
your idea here.

Elias