Re: Any experience with "The Last One"?

From: Keith Thompson (kst-u_at_mib.org)
Date: 11/27/03 

Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2003 21:15:33 GMT

Programmer Dude <Chris@Sonnack.com> writes:
[...]
> Would you teach someone to use a sword by giving them a sharp one
> and warning them to be careful? Would you teach someone to use a
> gun by *first* handing them a loaded one and warning them to be
> careful? Would you teach someone to drive a race car by putting
> them in one and warning them to be careful?

Giving a novice access to a C compiler isn't really analagous to
giving a novice access to a sword, a gun, or a race car. An idiot
with a gun can do tremendous damage to himself and others; an idiot
with a C compiler is unlikely to do more than write software that
crashes randomly, or, in the worst case, crashes the computer it's
running on (though the latter is unlikely under a reasonably robust
OS). 

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center             <*>  <http://www.sdsc.edu/~kst>
Schroedinger does Shakespeare: "To be *and* not to be"
(Note new e-mail address)

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