Re: Beginner to programming. References to understand terms.

[steve donovan <steve.j.donovan@...>]

On Wed, Apr 26, 2017 at 9:54 AM, Enrico Colombini <erix@erix.it> wrote:
> Definitely. I would replace C++ with C, to keep all underlying concepts in
> plain view with no behind-the-scene magic.

Andrei Alexandrescu made this classic comment on Reddit

"In my opinion C++ is a language for experts and experts only [...] It
has enough pitfalls in virtually all of its core constructs to make
its use by benevolent amateurs virtually impossible except for the
most trivial applications."

(I like that word 'benevolent' ;))

I _used_ to think otherwise, even did a C++ interpreter (UnderC)
because I wanted to teach C++ "conversationally". That came out as the
Que book "C++ by Example" - unfortunately it was a series so they
couldn't use my original "Conversational C++" title.
The basic idea is that people learn languages best in an immersive
conversational context, stretching the artificial/natural language
correspondence a little. Well, it turns out that _some_ people learn
programming better than way.

With C, what you see is what you get; your foot is always clearly in
your gun sights.

And a very suitable partner for Lua, of course!