[prog] Sample implementations of UNIX utilities.

[Jenn Vesperman]

On Sat, 2002-12-28 at 08:07, Robert J. Hansen wrote:

> Honestly, while I think C is a great teaching tool, I think the
> open-source world is in an unhealthy relationship with it.  There are
> too many young punks (and punkettes) who think that they know C and
> Perl, and thus they know Everything Worth Knowing about programming.  We
> need to open our eyes to other ways of thinking about computation, other
> ways of solving problems.  

Posting as just plain me:

That will happen regardless of which languages are learned.

I read a great quote when I was a young teen, and thought it was stupid.
Now, I see the truth in it. The quote was something like:

"When I was 17, I thought my dad was an idiot.
Now I'm 24, and it's amazing how much he's learned in just a few years."


Thinking they know everything about $foo is a quality of teenagers, and
is totally independant of $foo or any aspect of $foo. C has nothing to
do with it. When I was a teenager, kids who could PEEK and POKE and
manipulate Sprites knew Everything Worth Knowing. 
If they now have to know C and Perl, then they're actually learning more
than they did In My Day. :)

> > Right, I've just spewed a whole load of stuff, and I'm not quite sure how 
> > comprehensible it is to people here, and whether anyone will agree. Thoughts? 
> 
> Oh, I disagree--but I certainly find your comments to be interesting. 

Putting the official hat on:


I will note that you're both commenting in a very 'this is true' or at
least 'this is what I believe to be true' style. It's slightly
off-putting to me, and our more fragile members need you to state what
is opinion and what is fact a little more clearly.
It's obvious to me that you both know which is which. :) 

LinuxChix is intended at least partly as a haven for (a) novices and (b)
insecure people, so please make a little more effort to flag opinion
than you would in a more general environment. 


Thanks. I appreciate the discussion - it's interesting watching what
people believe. But the novices are doubtless wondering 'what's a Turing
machine?' and the insecure are probably afraid to say 'yes, but I prefer
$foo' and even wondering 'am I wrong to prefer $foo?'

(BTW to the insecure: yes you can say it, and no you're not wrong.
Language preferences are opinion and personal choice, there is no One
True Way.)



Jenn V. (in both hats today)
-- 
    "Do you ever wonder if there's a whole section of geek culture 
        	you miss out on by being a geek?" - Dancer.
 My book 'Essential CVS' will be published by O'Reilly in 2003.
jenn at anthill.echidna.id.au     http://anthill.echidna.id.au/~jenn/