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On 01/12/2012 21.12, liam mail wrote:
I feel you need to build a solid foundation onto which knowledge is grown.
That's just one of the possible paths, a respectable approach usually taken by schools but unlikely to inspire passion and motivation and requiring a lot of methodical determination on the learner's part.
Some people (including myself) prefer to learn by following a completely different path, starting with islands of knowledge and building from there in all directions. In my case it all started with RPN HP calculators, then a first exposure to BASIC, then 6502 assembly, then BASIC in depth when personal computers appeared (wow, garbage collection!) then some Pascal, then C... and so on. The (initial) lack of a solid theoretical foundation didn't prevent me from building complex and robust programs.
Also, my teaching experience (both in writing and in person) seems to indicate that the learner's motivation is the most important point. So I agree with martinwguy's when he says: "the choice can reflect the
kind of problems the beginner wants to solve first".The starting point is not really that important; comprehension, depth and a wider view will come later if the learner is really motivated.
-- Enrico