Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!willett!ForthNet
From: ForthNet@willett.UUCP (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Forth in print
Message-ID: <278.UUL1.3#5129@willett.UUCP>
Date: 17 Jan 90 00:52:50 GMT
Organization: Latest Link in ForthNet Chain (Pittsburgh, PA)
Lines: 42


 Date: 01-16-90 (10:28)              Number: 281
   To: BOB JENNER                    Refer#: NONE
 From: MICHAEL HAM                     Read: 01-16-90 (15:01)
 Subj: NEW PROGRAMMERS               Status: PUBLIC MESSAGE

 I understand the need for programmers who are strong-minded 
 and able to function in a world of imperfect documentation
 and subtle bugs.  The question is then how to reach that goal.
 It is not unlike child-rearing, and in that parallel it is 
 clear that a nuturing, supportive, and caring start produces
 people who become true adults, able to deal effectively with
 a complex and not always caring world.  Despite the common
 wisdom that slum children learn street smarts and become tough
 people, few (even those who take that position) send their 
 children into slum conditions for their early education.

 My own book tries to help the new programmer (note the "new"--
 the book is, as the title says, for the "utter beginner") learn
 in a safe and comfortable environment, building toward the time
 when she or he can work independently.  Indeed, the first thing
 I have the user do is crash the system to a permanent halt by
 executing the phrase 4 EXECUTE.  By seeing things go bad and
 learning how to get out of it, they take the first step to being
 able to deal with that on their own.  And I do have bugs in 
 various examples--but I tell them the bugs are there, and ask
 them to find and fix the bugs.  And I provide some tools and
 then have them revise the tools in specific directions.

 My hope is that by the end of the book, the reader can be the
 kind of tough-minded, independent programmer that we want.  

 In my own experience, the teachers who came on tough, separating
 the wheat from the chaff in the introductory classes, were either
 sadists working out their own problems, or were simply not very
 good teachers looking for a rationale to escape the hard work
 that good teaching demands.  

 NET/Mail : LMI Forth Board, Los Angeles, CA (213) 306-3530             
-----
This message came from GEnie via willett through a semi-automated process.
Report problems to: 'uunet!willett!dwp' or 'willett!dwp@gateway.sei.cmu.edu'