Re: The developers of Debian Linux think there was no point in coding in binary code three years ago as they did or make the Riga Technical University and University of Latvia?
françai s dijo [Tue, Sep 09, 2014 at 03:17:00PM -0300]:
> Members of forum, especially the ReactOS developers, I could not
> resist the urge to now post the following message:
>
> This message is mainly for developers of ReactOS operating system.
Umh, I'm sorry, this is Debian-land, you will not find many ReactOS
people here.
> What are the programming languages that were used to develop the
> Debian Linux ?
Practically any and every language you can think of. Debian is not
just Linux (Linux is mostly written in C, with bits of assembler), but
a set of literally tens of thousands of other projects.
> Probably the Riga Technical University and University of Latvia
> continue teaching coding in binary code, in other words, machine language.
>
> I say this because about three years ago the Riga Technical
> University and University of Latvia continued teaching coding in
> binary code, in other words , machine language.
>
> The Riga Technical University and University of Latvia made based
> projects in Debian Linux using coding in binary code?
>
> The developers of Debian Linux think there was no point in coding in binary
> code three years ago as they did or make the Riga Technical University
> and University of Latvia?
[Let me put my teacher hat on]
Let me correct a bit your point here: I can *assure* you the
University of Latvia didn't ever teach to code either in binary code
or in machine language. In any case, they might have taught some kind
of assembler, a set of mnemonics that are assembled (translated) into
its binary equivalents in a much straighter fashion than any higher
level language.
I know few people that can do bits of debugging looking at binary
code. But I don't know anybody that actually prefers that to
assembler. It has no direct meaning for humans, much less so in
complex architectures such as x86 (MIPS has quite a bit of regularity,
so you can +- easily recognize some constructs, but still, assembler
is prefered).
Now, as to your question: When is said language taught? It would
*really* surprise me if you told me the University of Latvia taught
assembler to newcomer students. Students have to grasp the basics of
programming *and like it*. Some universities start with C; I don't
think it's a good idea: A much higher-level language (often Python is
chosen) makes it much easier to grasp the logic of stating the steps
of an algorithm to be executed in order, and will allow students to
better grasp programming paradigms, data types, etc.
At some point, lower-level languages should be studied. C is a great
example, as it exposes a lot of complexity while still being quite
human-readable.
I use bits of fake-assembler when showing some points in my class
about Operating Systems. The course on Compilers also benefits clearly
from assembler. It helps students understand what *actually* happens
when you do a given call. But I don't intend on teaching how to
actually program in assembler (I'd have to learn to do so first!)
I hope my opinion is useful to you.
Now, please note that basically nothing I said in this last couple of
paragraphs is Debian-related. Of course, you can do Debian development
in any language, including your favorite assembler. But you will find
you need many other higher level languages much more.
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