macOS Beginner in Programming

[Farani]

"It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration." Dijkstra.

I am not a CS-guy, but from what I gather Dijkstra is an important computer scientist, and many people apparently share his view or parrot it (like me). I only mention this because the person asking the question is new to the world of programming and might not be aware of this view on Basic. Every language has it opponents and champions, but the opinions about Basic in this regard seem to be tilted quite strongly against the language.

Thanks for the quote. I haven't been exposed to anything about BASIC in years, so I'm glad I know how many people feel about it now. I'm sure they have good reason; I wish I knew why, though. I thought I'd just mention it because it was one of the stepping stones for me. Thank you for "parroting" the quote though. I appreciate it.

 

[lee1210]

"It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration." Dijkstra.

I am not a CS-guy, but from what I gather Dijkstra is an important computer scientist, and many people apparently share his view or parrot it (like me). I only mention this because the person asking the question is new to the world of programming and might not be aware of this view on Basic. Every language has it opponents and champions, but the opinions about Basic in this regard seem to be tilted quite strongly against the language.

Being a University of Texas Comp Sci alum I don't believe I had many courses in which we were not reminded about Dijkstra's importance to the field. By the same token I'm sure at A&M speaking ill of C++ in front of the faculty would draw ire, with Stroustrup being a member.

I can't say that I totally agree that BASIC programmers are "mentally mutilated beyond hope", but while it may be possible to write good BASIC, poor BASIC seems to be much easier to write. This tends to ingrain some bad programming practices, but I don't think it's impossible to break these. We have a recovering BASIC programmer or two on these forums, and I don't believe they are irreparably damaged. =) You can write poor code in any language.

-Lee

 

[Farani]

I believe that there is no better way to learn than to do. Exercises are the way to go. Reading and knowing how to read/understand documentation is very important, but if you read a cook book from start to finish, you would not be a master chef. You have to apply what you are reading immediately, in my opinion, for it to stick.

You definitely have more experience than me, but I just thought I'd say that I completely agree with you on doing exercises. You cannot really learn it without writing code and making mistakes; many times it is the mistakes that make concepts clear and give you a deeper understanding.