Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!usc!samsung!uunet!crdgw1!rpi!uupsi!pbs.org!TALOS!jerry
From: jerry@TALOS.UUCP (Jerry Gitomer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: D-type and I-type (was: Teaching in abstract terms)
Message-ID: <1175@TALOS.UUCP>
Date: 21 Feb 91 13:48:13 GMT
References: <3347.27c27c91@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com>
Organization: NPRI, Alexandria VA
Lines: 43

browns@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com (Stan Brown) writes:

:In article <s64421.666449403@zeus:, s64421@zeus.usq.EDU.AU (house ron) writes:
:: On the contrary.  Too many textbooks and instructors in the more
:: esoteric universities deliberately teach programming in an etherial
:: style which bears no relation to the actual world.  Thank heavens
:: C books avoid this.  In fact, and this is my main point, IT IS
:: VERY MUCH HARDER TO START WITH THE ABSTRACT AND MOVE TO THE CONCRETE
:: THAN TO START WITH THE CONCRETE AND MOVE TO THE ABSTRACT.  That is,
:: teach by examples!  THEN show the principles behind them.

:This works for you; great.  But it works best the other way for me.

:A few months ago, the last time we had the which-C-book-is-best religious
:argument, I pointed out that there are D-type and I-type thinkers.

:D-type (deductive) like to see the principles, then maybe one example.
:They thrive on working out the implicatuions of general principles
:stated as concisely as possible.  I-type (inductive) prefer the style
:you mention above.

:Nerither is right or wrong.  It is most effective for D-type persons to
:have D-type books (like K&R) and D-type instructors, and for I-type
:persons to have I-type books and instructors.

:My observation is that the majority (80-90%) of persons are I-type.
:Since I'm D-type, when I wrote manuals I wrote D-type manuals and
:couldn't understand why sso many people didn't read what was right there
:on the page.  It was years later that I realized the problem: I was
:writing D-type manuals for an audience of predominantly I-type readers.

I could very well be wrong, but I think that most programmers are
D-type.  If so, it follows that D-type books are the best to use
in teaching programming to programmers and the I-type books are
best for teaching "concepts of programming" to non-programmers. 
Ergo, the choice of book should be based on which group of
students are the target.


-- 
Jerry Gitomer at National Political Resources Inc, Alexandria, VA USA
I am apolitical, have no resources, and speak only for myself.
Ma Bell (703)683-9090      (UUCP:  ...{uupsi,vrdxhq}!pbs!npri6!jerry