Re: Should I learn C or Pascal?

[djohnson@tartarus.ucsd.edu (Darin Johnson)]

gwinn@res.ray.com (Joe Gwinn) writes:
> Shouldn't we answer the man's question, without drifting into theological
> discussions about the relative merits of various languages?  He wants to
> find a better job, not find religion, or become a better person.  So,
> where are the jobs?  

And speaking of theology - give a man a fish and you feed him for a
day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life.

That's why the thread has drifted.  The original poster wanted to know
where to get a fish.  If he learns the language that gets him a job
now, what happens next year?  The language will change - and more
often the way the language is used will change.  When you know how to
program, the choice of language is just a matter of syntax and
idiosyncracies.  If all you know is one language/methodology, then
everything else is viewed as "a silly way of doing things".  If you
learn abstraction, you can use it in any language.  If you learn C and
have never seen abstraction, you're not going to use abstraction until
years of experience cause you to use it.  These aren't things you
learn on the job unless you work with people that also know these
things and they make an effort to teach you (and this is becoming less
and less likely).

I have to maintain code written by someone who just learned C after
decades of assembler.  He thinks it's the greatest language in the
world, and is always wondering why I am spending the time improving
code (because it saves me time in the long run).  There's absolutely
no sense of abstraction in the code, no comments (except to tell the
name of the file), little portability (he thinks separate source trees
are fine), and whatever gets the job done is what gets done.  That's
what happens when you just learn the language but not the programming.

Same thing everywhere.  They teach English to English speakers in
school.  They teach music theory to people who can already play.
Are computers supposed to be the exception?
-- 
Darin Johnson
djohnson@ucsd.edu	O-
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