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 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: bs@research.att.com (Bjarne Stroustrup) Subject: Re: What's the best language to start with? [was: Re: Should I learn C or Pascal?] Date: 1996/09/25 Message-ID: #1/1 X-Deja-AN: 185243506 references: <51knkn$j61@dub-news-svc-8.compuserve.com> <01bba638$e913f800$87ee6fce@timpent.a-sis.com> <324844D7.1507@trw.com> organization: Info. Sci. Div., AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-09-25T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: "Matthew M. Lih" writes: > Hope you don't mind if I interject an experience. > > Tim Behrendsen wrote: > > > > What do they actually think happens inside a computer *magic*???? > > In some cases, yes! > > > They don't think *anything*. Think about the fresh-faced newbie on > > his/her first day in CS 101. Their only experience with computers, > > if they have any at all, is interacting with them at the user > > level. They press a button, something happens. There's obviously > > a mechanism behind it, but they don't have any concept of how it > > works. > > Even some veterans don't have any idea. I'm taking > a C++ class, and the instructor didn't have any idea > that the "++" operator was developed because it > corresponded to a very quick machine language > instruction in the old PDP machines. When I pointed > this out, his comment was along the lines of "Oh, > you hardware types." Actually, the story that ++ comes from the PDP11 instruction set is a myth. Dennis Ritchie has denied it quite often, but that doesn't seem to impress people. ++ is in C and C++ because Dennis (being a mathematician) considered it a fundamental (and useful) operation. It was in the PDP11 instruction set because the designers at DEC independently had figured out that it was an important operation to optimize. - Bjarne