home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!chsun!zurich!gegu
- From: gegu@zurich.spectrospin.ch (Gerry Gucher)
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
- Subject: Re: Pascal as C prelude?
- Summary: learn pascal before C ? Certainly yes
- Message-ID: <199@zurich.spectrospin.ch>
- Date: 21 Nov 92 17:13:12 GMT
- References: <forb0004.94.722315425@student.tc.umn.edu>
- Organization: Spectrospin AG, Fallanden Switzerland
- Lines: 40
-
- In article <forb0004.94.722315425@student.tc.umn.edu>, forb0004@student.tc.umn.edu (Eric Forbis) writes:
- > The U of Mn suggests, but does not require, taking a quarter of Pascal
- > before taking C. I have no experience with pascal, but have read that the
- > two languages utilize similar concepts and structures couched in different
- > terms. Is pascal really a useful introduction to C- should I be taking
- > that class after all? It's not my intent to start a C vs pascal flame war
- > here... It seems to me that, if pascal is that similar to C, you might as
- > well forego pascal and hop right into C.
- >
- > Any thoughts?
- >
-
- I believe that it is a very good idea to learn Pascal before C.
-
- Please do not expect that you have an easy time when switching from Pascal to C.
- Although the two languages use similar concepts, they are still very different.
-
- The two languages have different syntax and emphasize different things.
- E.g C is very strong at dynamic memory handling, pointers and efficiency
- tricks, where on the other hand Pascal enforces a clean and structured
- design and coding style.
-
- Your thinking and your programming style will benefit from learning Pascal
- first. But after that you will have to learn the C language in a separate
- step. Learning both will help you to write well structured, readable
- but still efficient programs. Achieving this by learning only one language
- is possible, but unlikely.
-
- +------------------------------------------------------------------+
- | Gerry Gucher gegu@spectrospin.ch |
- | Spectrospin AG, Industriestr 26, 8117 Faellanden Switzerland |
- +------------------------------------------------------------------+
- | A program that returns the wrong | There is nothing wrong with |
- | result twice as fast is infinitely | making mistakes, but make |
- | slower. - H. Spencer | new ones. - D.Sim |
- +------------------------------------------------------------------+
-
-
-
-
-