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From: soh@andromeda.trl.OZ.AU (kam hung soh)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.introduction
Subject: Re: Learning C
Message-ID: <1991May9.010822.14660@trl.oz.au>
Date: 9 May 91 01:08:22 GMT
Article-I.D.: trl.1991May9.010822.14660
References: <1991May4.202624.7055@athena.mit.edu> <91126.165519UH2@psuvm.psu.edu>
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UH2@psuvm.psu.edu (Lee Sailer) writes:

>If you are NOT already pretty proficient in some safer language, then
>the fastest way to learn C is to learn a safe language first.  REALLY!
>Learn Modula 2, or Pascal, or Oberon.  There are reasonable to excellent
>compilers in both the PD and commercial market.  After 6 months, you
>can convert to C in a few weeks.

Learning Pascal and changing to C can be a traumatic experience, since
the novice programmer is removed from a safe, well-defined environment
and plunged into a site-dependent horror.  I believe a background in
assembly might be more suitable, especially when it comes to the use of
pointers, arrays and parameter passing.

Better still get C++; the user can program block-structured code and
avoid a lot of the common pitfalls found in C.  The C++ compiler will
do a lot of work that the UNIX ``lint'' utility used to do, such as
typechecking and warnings about uninitialised variables or unreachable
code.  When one becomes proficient in C, migrate to C++ and embrace
object-oriented programming (apologies to Eiffel advocates) without too
much pain.  Unfortunately, C++ compilers are not very common for the
Amiga yet.

Regards,

---------------
Soh, Kam Hung      email: h.soh@trl.oz.au     tel: +61 03 541 6403 
Telecom Research Laboratories, P.O. Box 249, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia