Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!amdahl!oliveb!sun!pepper!cmcmanis
From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Struggling through the "C"
Summary: Semi-Flame from Chuck
Message-ID: <97160@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 3 Apr 89 05:38:06 GMT
References: <12000@louie.udel.EDU> <97113@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <13.6va2CVf1010TxC9.@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 56

[Not at Kevin, just Kevin happened to post, everyone else just sent mail :-)]

In article <13.6va2CVf1010TxC9.@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> (Kevin Clague) writes:
> or the less obvious, but more efficient (but Chuck knows this):
>
> char *b;
>
> b = a;
>
> while (*b) {
>   printf("%b",*b++);
>   fflush(stdout);
> }
>

Several people sent me messages ranging from, "how could someone like
you post such stupid C code?" to the more helpful "... didn't you know
it would be _much_ more efficient if you did it like this ..." [insert
Kevin's example here.] To keep from having to send everyone copies I've
decided to post my thinking on this matter, fortunately this is not in
c.s.a.t since it has very little technical content :

This is a _BASIC_ programmer we are talking to. Not your everyday pro ok?
He writes :
	10 FOR I = 1 TO LEN$(A$)
	20	PRINT MID$(A$, I, I)
	30 NEXT I

Now when one is teaching someone a new language, especially
someone who's been damaged by learning BASIC first, one starts
with direct equivalences. Token substitution and such. This
trains the students eyes into seeing the new syntax but keeps some
anchor points so that they don't loose sync. Once they understand
the construction of for(;;){} loops one moves on to talk about
pointers, while loops etc. The favorite example :

	char	*foo = a;
	while(*foo)
		printf("%c",*foo++);

Introduces no less than 5 totally radical ideas to the BASIC programmer.
They are 1) String Pointers, 2) Non-Boolean loop conditions, 3) While
loops, 4) Pointer arithmetic and implied assignment (++), and 5) NULL 
termination of C strings. That makes it a _lousy_ example. Your BASIC 
programmer is not only lost, he doesn't even know where to start asking 
questions!

You've gone way over his head. So as an eventual programming goal to 
shoot for this if fine. In the mean time lets not make him feel totally 
stupid shall we?


--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: cmcmanis  ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
"A most excellent barbarian ... Genghis Kahn!"