Re: Is PERL good for a linguist new to programming?

On May 24, 9:35 pm, "Uri Guttman" <u...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
you don't know too many people who can't cook, hit a baseball, or play
an instrument (the latter for me).

True, but I don't know many who can do these things WELL. I think you
and I agree even though we express it differently.

some skills just can't be taught
because some fundamental skill or something is missing or weak. sure
everyone could do a minimal program if they can follow a recipe or
travel directions. but real programming isn't about that but dealing
with complex levels of those things.

This was my point. Learning the syntax and key words of a languages
isn't difficult, and learning the built in functions requires just
some practice. The difference between a journeyman and a master is the
same thing that separates the weekend golfer and Tiger Woods, or the
church pianist and Murray Parriah (sp?): a little bit of genius and
lots and lots and lots of hard work.

i teach that the reason programming
is easy is anyone can do minimal logical stuff.

Playing chess? Learning the moves of the pieces is easy. Learning
certain practices (holding the center, developing your men, focusing
your attack) is a little harder. To me, the logic of chess, more of an
art really, is seeing the patterns. Programming as a science can be
taught and learned. Programming as an art cannot be taught or learned.
Anyone can be taught to read notes and play a scale. Making music is
an entirely different matter.

the logic is easy enough as i said. scaling is the hard part. everyone
can learn a little law but learning enough to be a lawyer and pass the
bar is hard.

Actually, passing the bar takes minimal knowledge but great analytical
skills. I've taken and passed bar exams in two states, and what we
were told by the bar examiners was this: 'If you don't know the law,
make it up. We are much more interested in how you think than what you
know.' An engineer can always look up material strengths and formulas
in a handbook, but knowing how to apply the knowledge is the crucial
point. Likewise, a good programmer can program in any language, while
a poor programmer cannot program in any language.

An illustration from programming: you have a glob of data that has
some complex relationships, and you need to stuff it into a data
structure. Do you use and array of arrays, an array of hashes, a hash
of arrays, or a hash of hashes, or something else? You can have a
great technical knowledge of these structures, but knowing when and
why to use them is on a higher level. As you say, scaling is one
important component.

CC
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Bloomberg joins the Learn to Code hype
    ... learning to code I presume that rates are going to plummet. ... The machines which were once dismissed as "toy computers" started ... Writing Javascript is no more difficult than writing COBOL. ... They did me proud and 3 of them went on into programming careers. ...
    (comp.lang.cobol)
  • Re: trouble creating array of objects
    ... > programming would want to take that approach. ... Someone learning for any ... How to write template classes ... Using pointers and new is not advanced memory management it's the language ...
    (alt.comp.lang.learn.c-cpp)
  • RE: C# book for 16 yo?
    ... First I would suggest first learning Visual Studio.NET. ... Then I suggest 2 books to actually learn C# - Microsoft has a book called ... important to quality programming. ... language that combines all the best features of previous languages and is ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp)
  • Re: trouble creating array of objects
    ... >> happen to be learning because they enjoy the same challenge. ... programming would want to take that approach. ... How to write template classes ... > example is necessary to aid learning but they do not use explicit template ...
    (alt.comp.lang.learn.c-cpp)
  • Re: A database theory resource - ideas
    ... I actually own books by the above authors. ... things are much better on the programming side, ... "We don't need no stinkin' principles. ... programmed learning might work to improve logic, empiricism, overcoming ...
    (comp.databases.theory)