On Tue, Sep 24, 2024 at 8:32 AM tito via Dng <dng@???> wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Sep 2024 14:44:12 +0200
> Didier Kryn <kryn@???> wrote:
>
> > Le 24/09/2024 à 13:02, o1bigtenor via Dng a écrit :
> > >
> > > Hmmmmm - - - so there are a whole pile of 'secret handshakes' and the
> > > like in the learning of 'C' to necessitate the need for lessons - - -
> > > that's
> > > too bad. Having read many reports of poor quality C programming I am
> > > somehow then even less impressed.
> > > You're recommending a good book - - - - imo there are likely a
> > > plethora of books - - - how does one determine which are good ones
> > > without
> > > previous understanding? (Seriously - - - to accurately determine the
> > > quality
> > > of a didactic text takes expertise and when one is starting the
> learning
> > > process what one is exactly short of is that - - - expertise!)
> > >
> > > Over to you for more information.
> >
> > I learned K&R C language starting in 1980, by writing programs,
> > with an engineer at hand to answer my questions. ~10 years later I found
> > an excellent book edited by O'Reilly, but I probably gave it to someone
> > who did not give it back. Later I found at the same editor a book on
> > both C and C++, which was poor about C. This was before C99, but well
> > after the advent of ANSI C.
> >
> > Today I'm not able to suggest a book. However I don't think it is
> > valuable to learn K&R C. ANSI C was a big improvement, and there has
> > been some other significant improvements since then, even if I don't
> > know all of them. I guess there are professional C programmers around
> > there who can suggest good books.
> >
> > For what regards lessons on programming languages, like in every
> > matter, I have experienced that the learning is faster *and better* with
> > lessons and tutorship, at least at the beginning. This is true for ski,
> > and for swimming, and is also true for programming. Why wouldn't it be?
>
> It is of course faster, but nothing beats in the long run developing your
> own
> abstraction of how a programming language works the hard way by hitting
> several times the wall to find out what works and what not and why.
>
> Hmm - - - this is called learning by doing - - - agreed.
Regards
>