From: Kevin Smith <kevinbsmith@...>
Date: 2001-09-22T02:08:38+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:21494] Re: SV:  Re: Ruby/objects book in style of The Little Lisper

--- Mikkel Damsgaard <mikkel_damsgaard@mailme.dk> wrote:
> Hey! Ruby is proper tail recursive, so since the
> recursive  factorial is much easier to understand 

Sorry, I disagree. Recursion is "cool", but is rarely
simpler to understand. Especially for non-technical folks.

> Math is a nicely simple extrepsion of abstract ideas.
> Ideally to start off a book with imho.

If your audience is programmers, or math-people, sure. If
your target audience is an eight year old boy, a 75 year
old grandmother, and a janitor who is considering a career
change, it is completely inappropriate.

One of the reasons I didn't get a CS degree is because they
required so much bloody math. I got a business degree
instead. Programming isn't about math. It's about logic,
and sociology/psychology. 

Kevin

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