[clue] Budding SW Engineers
Jim Bucks
jbucks at procci.com
Mon May 7 14:00:22 MDT 2012
I am going to be cantankerous here.
I really think one should spend time learning the concepts and
fundamental of the basic algorithms *BEFORE* doing any coding (I'm
thinking of the Knuth set of books, and wish I had a set of them when I
was starting out "back in the day")! I know this is sacrilegious in
this day and age of "I want it done NOWWW".
Over the years, I have seen a lot of beautiful - but non-functional
coding being submitted. I think this was mostly due to not having a
good grasp / understanding of the underlying fundamentals that were
being used.
From a coding perspective, there is very little we do today that is
truly new and innovative.
Also, from a higher level perspective, once one knows and understands
the fundamentals, one can apply that knowledge to virtually any language!
Just my old-time opinion,
Jim
On 05/07/2012 01:03 PM, dennisjperkins at comcast.net wrote:
> I don't know if C is a good first language. In addition to learning
> basic programming principles, you must also deal with pointers, work
> around C's not having strings as a basic type, etc. And you also need
> to compile, which is one more thing to do. Focus on the basics first,
> then expand your knowledge.
>
> I do think C is a good second language. But then, I think software
> engineers should also learn assembly language, not because they will
> ever use it, but because it exposes them to where hardware and
> software meet at the most basic level.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From: *"M Paul Webb" <hsechmvt at yahoo.com>
> *To: *"CLUE's mailing list" <clue at cluedenver.org>
> *Sent: *Monday, May 7, 2012 12:45:45 PM
> *Subject: *Re: [clue] Budding SW Engineers
>
> I've always heard that it is best to begin with some form of C. You
> don't think so? I don't know program language, but the basics do not
> look difficult. However, what I'm wondering is -- if I invest some
> time to learn a language, then what can I do with it? If there were
> something fun or practical, I might look at some books.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Raymond DeRoo <rderoo at deroo.net>
> **To:** CLUE's mailing list <clue at cluedenver.org>
> *Cc:* Max G. Allen <mgallen at thegeek.nu>; David T. Willson
> <dtwillson at thegeek.nu>
> *Sent:* Monday, May 7, 2012 12:10 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [clue] Budding SW Engineers
>
> David:
>
> I can'tcount the number of times I've been asked, "What is the
> best programming language? Which one should I learn first?"
>
> Learn them all, but start with Python, because it's easy, fun, and
> highly capable out-of-the box.
>
>
> And one of few where indentation matters. :)
>
> Next, if you want to get further away from the OS, go Java. If you
> want to get closer to the OS, go bash.
>
>
> I think Java or C, bash isn't a programming language and is further
> from the OS than Java. ( even taking into account the JVM )
>
> And enough JavaScript and perl to get by on.
>
>
> I would have to say the JavaScript is an absolute must unless that
> have no desire to write Internet related code. So many technologies
> today are making use of javascript ( node.js, mongodb, html5, etc )
> that anyone not learning JavaScript today is doing themselves a huge
> disservice.
>
> Cheers,
> Raymond
>
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