Re: 4 beginner's questions on the PL Ada

[Shark8 <onewingedshark@gmail.com>]

On Friday, August 9, 2013 9:33:06 PM UTC-6, Emanuel Berg wrote:
> Dennis Lee Bieber writes:
> 
> > While I do sometimes just drop in code snippets, I more often
> > prefer the "teach a man to fish"
> 
> Code communicates better than documentation, is my firm belief. 

There's a *huge* problem with this: superficial understanding.
This problem can lead to extremely bad code adopted as "best practice"/"standard practice".

An excellent example: PHP's official site.
They go to the code side even in the documentation, to the point where the mb/forum attached to the particular function is oft littered with code examples... and usually bad ones once you gain a deeper understanding of what's going on.

> I can guarantee you, I study such all code in detail, and my eyes
> are trained. I don't kill and yank the code, not learning anything
> from it, and then come back, demanding more.

Then you're a step ahead of the cut-n-past script monkeys that the "code snipet" style seems to generate -- not to say that code isn't useful but, again, it seems to encourage a lazy psudeo-understanding.

> I know, some do that,
> on the SX sites not the least. If you do that, then I do agree
> reading is a lot better. But if you do that, you're an idiot, and
> those tend not to read, either :)

LOL - Point.