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- Path: solon.com!not-for-mail
- From: seebs@solutions.solon.com (Peter Seebach)
- Newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++
- Subject: Re: C or C++ for a 14-year old? The definitive reply
- Date: 16 Jan 1996 16:14:11 -0600
- Organization: Usenet Fact Police (Undercover)
- Message-ID: <4dh7vj$9q7@solutions.solon.com>
- References: <4cve3a$f0n@news.iconn.net> <qq91jhhtbr.fsf@tartarus.ucsd.edu> <4danli$llb@news.onramp.net> <st95h6e9-1601960834500001@myers1-006.resnet.drexel.edu>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: solutions.solon.com
-
- In article <st95h6e9-1601960834500001@myers1-006.resnet.drexel.edu>,
- Luke Cassady-Dorion <st95h6e9@dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu> wrote:
- > When I began studying Tae Kwon Do my instructor told me that in Korea
- >before he was allowed to begin learning the Tae Kwon Do movements he was
- >forced to sit and watch others practice for months and months. The classes
- >which he taught in the USA started ppl doing the moves from day one. What
- >is my point? Over the past few years changes in education have come about.
- >Ppl are learning in more interactive ways. This is because these ways
- >work! We learn by doing!
-
- Whaddya mean "we"? *some* people learn by doing. Others by study.
- I learn best by osmosis; I hang around people who have a given skill,
- and eventually I can start doing it. I learn next-best by studying.
- I am unable to do things without some clue of what I'm trying to do.
-
- This is not to say you can't learn by doing; but don't assume it's the best
- way for you to learn things. If comp.lang.c (and comp.lang.c++) show us
- anything, it's that a lot of people "learn by doing" some amazingly
- incorrect things - because doing may not give you negative feedback.
- (For instance, think of all the psychotic tricks that work in a system
- with a fixed memory model and no memory protection or VM, but which are
- not legitimate programming techniques elsewhere.)
-
- >If one reads and reads about OO and other topics
- >before he trys to implement them he will have a much harder time
- >understanding the concepts.
-
- You may; I found C++ mystifying until I took the time to read through the
- majority of the ARM, and skim a couple of books on OO programming and
- design. Now, I'm not exactly a great master, but I have enough structure
- to start programming and expect to learn something from it.
-
- >Then while you are studying the concepts read some of the
- >above papers to reinforce the concepts. I mean in no way to discredit the
- >above idea of studying the papers to learn the rather difficult concepts,
- >I just think that they should be read during studying and not before. (God
- >I'm long winded aren't I:)). Something to think about.
-
- Also critical: Reread the beginning materials occasionally. K&R will teach
- you a lot of things after you've been programming for 5 years that you missed
- earlier. Remember that your books can be wrong, and your experience can be
- wrong. Your memory may be bad, or your sample space may be small. Ditto
- for the authors of books and papers.
-
- -s
- --
- Peter Seebach - seebs@solon.com - Copyright 1995 Peter Seebach.
- C/Unix proto-wizard -- C/Unix questions? Send mail for help. No, really!
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-