[Courses] [C Programming] Anyone still here?

[Dave North]

Linda:
> a former boss who archly told me that CS students consider being taught
> how to program as an insult

That may help explain the surprising number of CS graduates I've met who
don't seem to have even a rudimentary grasp of programming.
	Not being a CS myself, I had to be taught. Pity I didn't grasp
more myself, but at least it allows me the luxury of being able to comment
on your question:

> So is there some philosophy to programming, some underpinning that is not
> syntax specific

Yes, very much so. There are a number of steps involved in forming a good
plan for a program, all of which I wish I understood more thoroughly.
Since I don't, I'll just encourage you to search out the free version of
"Think In Java" on the web and peruse the opening chapters. His discussion
of the process is quite good and will point you in the right direction.
Don't worry about the Java part -- that comes later in the book.
	But there are two major branches in the "plan a program" tree now:
Object Oriented Mythology and Procedural Code Practicality. The former
seems to consist mostly of understanding the taxonomy of zoos and the
latter of handwaving about "low level access." If you see either of those
two literary devices rearing their ugly head, run screaming.
	There are many ways to map out a program in a very general sense
before you start coding. Two that come to mind are flow charts and
pseudocode. The former has some conventions, but is almost what you might
expect to see if you had to sit through another dry powerpoint
presentation, except that it's useful. The latter is something along the
lines of:
	If (dave ever shuts up) {I can get on with this};
		else {he'll die at the keyboard};
That sort of thing. Both can be very useful. But wait, there's more...

> or is it that my way of thinking isn't the same as the
> originators of programming and I'll just never genuinely understand it?

You say that like it's a bad thing. But I suspect you'll do fine.

> Is  it one of those things that's either intuitive to you or it isn't?

I wish I knew! But I suspect it's just a question of practice and thinking
things through a bit.

d