[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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