5 Jan
2012
5 Jan
'12
12:20 a.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Dave McGuire
Sent: 04 January 2012 22:24
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: teaching programming to kids - Re: Looking for
8080/Z80 BASIC
On 01/04/2012 03:42 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
It amazes me how little our current programmers know about the windows
environment. They wanted to run a scheduled task every minute because they
didn't know how to create a service...
Of course, some would disagree. But if you
don't understand how a
computer works, it's hard to believe that programming languages will
come easy to you.
Of course, there are plenty of people in middle-school bands who
learned to play a musical instrument who don't understand the first
thing about musical theory or even how and why their instrument
works.
The administration cares only that the band can play the
school fight
song at athletic events. Understanding be
damned.. It's my
contention that there are educational systems set up to accomplish
the same sort of thing in information technology.
This is definitely the case. It's pretty tough to find a
programmer
these days who has any idea of how a computer actually works, even at
the assembly language level. This is something that many
(most?) people
think is "just fine", and some have even go so far as to fling around
statements like "why should I learn to be a mechanic just to drive a
car?" ...thinking that's an appropriate analogy when it's
not. Looking
at the state of software today proves my point beyond any
shadow of a doubt.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
New Kensington, PA