Re: [OT] A question for programmers - Inspiration
On Fri, Mar 21, 2003 at 08:14:26PM +0200, Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho wrote:
> On 20030321T123756-0500, Matthew Danish wrote:
> > Neither of the programming books I recommended restrict themselves to
> > the theory.
>
> Reading books is theory, regardless of what they cover.
Indeed, I am recommending learning some theory. Do you consider
exercises in programming to be merely theory, as well, though? Your
statement, as is, is absolute nonsense. I am assuming the existence of
initiative in the reader.
PAIP teaches you good solid programming practice through example. The
examples are interesting programs, not some obscure mathematical
formulae. (Othello player, Scheme compiler, Eliza, line diagram
labelling, to name a few).
If you don't learn, you're going to make the same mistakes that were
made before. These books guide you through exercises which allow you to
learn important principles and will help to catch your mistakes. If you
read them all the way through without actually doing some actual
programming yourself, you've lost half their value.
--
; Matthew Danish <mdanish@andrew.cmu.edu>
; OpenPGP public key: C24B6010 on keyring.debian.org
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; "There is no dark side of the moon really; matter of fact, it's all dark."
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