[nmglug] Beginning C Programming

[dave borton]

I understand Mars's point.  It's good to have an appreciation for what goes
on under the covers.   But the risk is that since C (pointers, malloc(),
etc.) is such a pain in the arse that it can discourage novice programmers.


-----Original Message-----
From: nmglug [mailto:nmglug-bounces at lists.nmglug.org] On Behalf Of John
Osmon
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2014 4:04 PM
To: NMGLUG.org mailing list
Subject: Re: [nmglug] Beginning C Programming

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.
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