Re: Fun with C

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

On Apr 18, 8:10 pm, "Randy Brukardt" <ra...@rrsoftware.com> wrote:
> "Elias Salomão Helou Neto" <eshn...@gmail.com> wrote in messagenews:d169b543-eed4-4a0a-a295-e391c198463e@j9g2000prj.googlegroups.com...
> On Apr 17, 8:43 pm, "Nasser M. Abbasi" <n...@12000.org> wrote:
> ...
>
> >> I must have been doing something really wrong all those years,
> >> becuase the only way I learned a new language was by
> >> programming in it.
>
> >Without even reading a book about it? You are doing things terribly
> >wrong. Of course programming is the best way to learn, but not without
> >a good book to read while practicing.
>
> There aren't always books to read.

C books? Come on!

> We wrote a partial Ada *compiler* back in
> 1980 from a description circulated by our professor (Janus/Ada originally
> started in a compiler construction course).

Surely the first Ada compiler you wrote wasn't coded in Ada itself.
Haven't you read any book about the language used to code the compiler
before? Weren't the professor's description a kind of "book"?

So keep saying people that they do not need to study the language they
intend to write code on. This is really smart, isn't it?

> The only book that we had (and
> we didn't get that until near the end of the class when we had already
> decided to commercialize it) was the 1980 Ada Reference Manual.

So you're again trying to claim you have written a compiler without
knowledge of the language to be compiled? It must be some kind of
magic, for sure. Again, what about the description by your teacher?

> I'm pretty
> sure that we had already converted the entire compiler into Ada code (so it
> could compile itself) before we saw any of the early Ada textbooks. (The
> Pyle textbook that we distributed with the compiler didn't come out until
> late 1981, I think.)

After writing an Ada compiler it is very unlikely for someone not to
know the language. There are lots of C textbooks, why not to use them?
Nonsense.

Also, please notice that I've recommended a book for those that are
learning the language, not for those who have already mastered it (but
even so a good reference manual is invaluable).

>
> That was OK, Ada wasn't that different than Pascal which we both already
> knew well.

This is dangerous. People seem to believe C is like Pascal or BASIC.
Is this knowing C? This is the kind of misconception we have to fight.
No programmer should claim to know C (or any other language) if he/she
doesn't really knows it.