[nmglug] Beginning C Programming

[John Osmon]

On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 03:18:32PM -0500, Mark Janssen wrote:
> On 6/10/14, J. Marsden DeLapp <jmdelapp at delapp.com> wrote:
> > Can anyone recommend a good book for high school students wishing to
> > learn C Programming?
> 
> There really isn't any reason for high school students to learn C
> programming or any language hat uses pointers.   The evolution of
> programming has advanced so far that it's really a poor direction
> unless they are doing hardware work.  Otherwise, the need to worry
> about the hardware details interferes with the art of programming.
 
Wow.  I couldn't disagree more.  I think having some time where you
have to sling memory on your own gives you a good grounding of
fundamentals and an appreciation for the things that are done for you
automatically with newer languages.

Moore's law has given us a great bounty.  Faster CPUs and an abundance 
of memory allow us to us highly leveraged (read:  object oriented)
languages where lots of stuff gets done "behind the scenes."

Programmers that learn via Java and Python have the same potential as
those from earlier times, but how many of them would be able to help in
the efforts to recapture the ISEE-3 probe?

Now get off my lawn while I get off my soapbox.  :-)


> Was there something specifically the students were looking to do?

I agree 100% with *this* question.  Knowledge of where you're going can
have huge impacts on whether or not your are successful!


> Mark Janssen, Ph. D. Computer Science
> Gothenburg, Nebraska.