Le 15.10.2013 18:28, Jerry Stuckle a écrit :
Why? Do you know how a TV signal is encoded at the station? How it is modulated onto the carrier? The operation of the RF and IF strips in your TV? The frequencies of the local oscillator(s) being used? How the RF signal is demodulated? How the video and audio are decoded? How the video is displayed on the screen? How the audio ends up at the speakers? Or do you just turn it on and watch your favorite show?
If I am a simple user, I can live without knowing nothing, yes. But I can hardly consider programmers as simple users... And, no, I do not know everything about the TV, but I know some stuff related to it's general working, like, for example, that to have an image I need to capt a radio signal from a satellite (ok, it's not the only way, I know), which is turned into an electrical analog signal, itself converted to a numerical one, which is finally interpreted to generate and image and sound.
And this small knowledge allows me to understand why and how I need to move the parabolic antenna, so that I am able to simply use my TV then, without the need of giving a lot of money to someone who will need lot of time to fix it for me (lot of time, because I'll have to wait him to go at my home). So, it makes me able to use my TV quicker, and to fix minor problems if, by example, a strong wind moved the antenna.
By example, in my last job, I was able to speak with the sysadmins,because I have knowledge about stuff that I do not need to know: linux,networking, firewalls (hardware and software), active directory, andthat kind of stuff that programmers do not need. But it always helps to have knowledge you do not need, and if I did not liked that idea when Iwas younger, I now love it.It is named general culture I think (if that translation from the Frenchexpression is correct).None of which has anything to do with the OSI layers or programming. They are all sysadmin functions.
Yes, I was speaking about the interest of being able to understand something that you do not really need to know.
It doesn't hurt to have knowledge you don't need now. But this world is way too complex to know everything about everything.
I agree. But to be able to communicate with someone which knows what you ignore, you will need common bases to explain what you need. People with very very good knowledge of their domain, but no knowledge in others' domains will need someone able to act as an translator. I have heard lot of stories of very very good computer scientist who mades very very good programs. But the programs were not used, because they were not adequate to user's needs.
That's why people have to know basics of other's sciences, and why general culture is important, for me. But maybe I think that because it is the way teaching is made in France, from centuries. I know that the biological knowledge (very basic one, of course, stuff about cellular atomic kernels, DNA, and alike.) I have acquired at a time is not very useful. But it made me able to discuss with my neighbor when I was in higher studies, and also inspired me some ideas for algorithms.
Just like I don't program in assembler (for Intel or Motorola MPUs or IBM mainframes), although I could do any of them still.
I do not do it either. But by being able to do so, I can understood why some instructions will slow down programs more than others. Of course, early optimization is root of evil, but I know that if I have to divide/multiply integers by a power of 2, I can use the << and >> operators. It also helps me when I need to debug programs, even if I do not have the source code.
Pointers have nothing to do with assembler.
Pointers are memory addresses, which are very important in asm. So, yes, knowing asm helped me a lot to understand C pointers. I understood them without any problem, unlike my classmates. And those guys were, as me, coming from electronic studies, so they were supposed to know basics about processors.
C is not the only language with pointers
Of course. They all need to use them if they offer dynamic stuff, but they try to hide them. Is it the good solution or not? I do not know, but if yes, I wonder why most games are written in C or C++? I think that guys who write them knows what is memory, and how it works. I hope for them at least.
But it doesn't require knowledge of underlying memory access to use pointers. I've taught many C and C++ classes over theyears (I used to do corporate programmer training), and never once didwe get into how memory works.
I wonder how you taught how to use them, so. Just saying that they are variables which indicates where in memory are located other variables? And people just accept that?
Those who never programmed in languages with pointers, i.e. COBOL, had a little trouble getting used to them,
Yes. It is what I said. General culture helps to learn new things faster. Not needed, but helps.
Plus, here, we are not discussing about programming, but about networking, so I think minimal knowledge of network stuff and some electric basis can be useful ;)Not really. When you're troubleshooting network problems in low level code, it is important. Otherwise it's no more important than knowing how everything in your TV works.
So, you are able to do right choices when you buy hardware without knowing how it works? Interesting, but I doubt it. By right choices, I do not mean "buying the one with the highest perfs", I mean "buying the one which fit your exact needs".
If you have no understanding about what the hell is a parasite, you will always buy armored cables, even if you only need a small piece of cable far from any parasite generator. Waste of money.
But, in a sense, you are right: it is only useful to troubleshoot problems, and creating stuff, installing stuff, gives problems. By doing nothing by yourself, you will still have problems: financial ones, this time.