Jun. 10th, 2022

chhotii: (Default)
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/12/11/back-to-basics/


These are all things that require you to think about bytes, and they affect the big top-level decisions we make in all kinds of architecture and strategy. This is why my view of teaching is that first year CS students need to start at the basics, using C and building their way up from the CPU. I am actually physically disgusted that so many computer science programs think that Java is a good introductory language, because it’s “easy” and you don’t get confused with all that boring string/malloc stuff but you can learn cool OOP stuff which will make your big programs ever so modular. This is a pedagogical disaster waiting to happen. Generations of graduates are descending on us and creating Shlemiel The Painter algorithms right and left and they don’t even realize it, since they fundamentally have no idea that strings are, at a very deep level, difficult, even if you can’t quite see that in your perl script. If you want to teach somebody something well, you have to start at the very lowest level.

Profile

chhotii: (Default)
chhotii

July 2023

S M T W T F S
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16 171819202122
23 242526272829
3031     

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 7th, 2025 06:25 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios