Re: [Nolug] Introducing myself

On 12/06/08 15:23, B. Estrade wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 06, 2008 at 02:52:55PM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote:
>> On 12/06/08 14:41, Dennis J Harrison Jr wrote:
>>> I would be happy to help you grok python(1). Or really, anything for
>>> that matter.
>>>
>>> There are plenty of ways to get your app running in android. What
>>> types of apps are you looking to dev?
>>>
>>> I am going to completely disagree with you that PHP is a good first
>>> language. It is sloppy, and full of horrendous examples. Python is a
>>> much better language to learn on. I suggest to my interns that they
>>> learn python first. C# second (# particularly because of mono and the
>>> semantics that go along with it). And then branch off from there. Of
>>> course, that is only a suggestion to them.
>> Python is a great learning scripting language, but new programmers
>> *need* to know the hardware. Assembly programming, preferably in
>> MS-DOS or CP/M, would be best.
>
[snip]
>
> Further exploration could lead to more advanced programming and
different paradigms, including OOP. At some point (and for good
measure) one really should try to understand functional programming,
which exposes the other side of the same coin, but I would never
recommend anyone /start/ with a functional language.

Thus the bloated crap that is modern software.

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2006/09/14/basic/

[snip]
>
> I absolutely disagree that programmers need to "know the
hardware," especially these days. Your suggestion of this draconian
route serves only to discourage would-be programmers. In my opinion,
one only needs to know assembly if they are writing low level
architecture specific drivers or are involved in writing compiler
back-ends (for both real and virtual targets). In addition to this,
ASM provides no intuitive way of implementing general algorithms, so
forcing one to start programming using such a primitive model makes
absolutely no sense whatsoever if their goal is to learn general
programming.

Do you *know* any assembly? If you did (only a modest knowledge is
needed), then I'm positive that you'd change your tune.

-- 
Ron Johnson, Jr.
Jefferson LA  USA
How does being physically handicapped make me Differently-Abled?
What different abilities do I have?
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