3 Jan
2012
3 Jan
'12
2:14 p.m.
On 1/3/2012 5:33 AM, Toby Thain wrote:
On 03/01/12 12:02 AM, Ian King wrote:
I know how to program in BASIC (and many other imperative programming
languages). I also know how to program in Lisp. The learning of the
latter did not require me to "un-learn" anything I had previously come
across.
Dijkstra's statement is snarky and amusing. It is not, however, an
essential truism.
- Josh
Quotation from "How do we tell truths that might hurt?", Edsger
W.Dijkstra, 18 June 1975, as retrieved from
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/ewd498.html on
2-JAN-2012:
"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."
Of course, there are people who think if it doesn't look like C/C++, it
ain't programmin'. :-) (Of course, not talking about you, Josh - just
say lambda!)
Most long-time imperative programmers who seriously studies The
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs will come face to
face with the essential truth of Dijkstra's remark. The consequent
un-learning is just as valuable as the learning...