Assembly vs. Everything Else (was: SemiOT: Mourning forClassicComputing)

From: Iggy Drougge <optimus_at_canit.se>
Date: Sat Aug 18 21:17:20 2001

XenoSoft skrev:

>I tell my students to learn a high level language before taking [PC]
>Assembly language (that it is NOT the easiest way to learn what a program
>is, etc.)

You mean you teach them Intel assembler? Here, it seems to be all about
Motorola or MIPS assembly. Which is nice, since that gives me and my neighbour
something to talk about. =)

>A number of years ago, UC Berkeley switched from using Pascal, to using
>Scheme (a Lisp derivative) for the first programming course for
>undergraduates. Soon after, they declared that they expected all of their
>students to already know C before their arrival!

When I took the programming course at the gymnasium, we were first taught
scheme. A lot of people complained that it was a useless language, which in
part is true, since it's hardly the kind of language you write a web browser
in. But I thought it was a nice beginner's language (contrary to most of my
co-students, I had programming experience, so my perspective differed from
theirs). The syntax is extremely simple, I think Tony would like it. A lot of
people superficially describe it as "a lot of parantheses", and that's true.
There's not a lot of semicolons, three kinds of parantheses, hashes and the
like.
OTOH, I also thought that it (and the teacher) encouraged some very dangerous
programming techniques, such as recursivity.

But C at arrival? Well, if there are preparation courses, I can see why. There
are a lot of people who have been using and programming computers since they
were kids, and they have an initial advantage over the newcomers. So as not to
bore the already-experienced, I can see why the real courses should start with
such a prerequisite as long as there is a preparatory course for those not
born with a joystick in their hand.

Now it seems to be all about Java, though. =/

--
En ligne avec Thor 2.6a.
Anv?nd g?rna mitt staket, fast du beh?ver nog fr?scha upp det lite.
    Lupin III, Lupin den otrolige (Lupin III vs. fukusei ningen), TMS 1978
Received on Sat Aug 18 2001 - 21:17:20 BST

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