From: Kyle Schmitt <kyleaschmitt@...>
Date: 2007-04-24T23:16:51+09:00
Subject: Re: ruby and C

Late in the conversation but...
I learned the canonical basics (Apple &Q) of childhood, then Pascal.
then C++, then C...
It really wasn't a good way to go.

You're right to learn C first.  It teaches you many of the good habits
people used to proclaim were taught by Pascal, except unlike Pascal,
it's useful.  Once you start coding in Ruby, you may not use your C
much, but it's one of those languages you should at least be able to
read.  Being able to read C, and having at least written some C, is to
a programmer like being able to read a circuit diagrams and
greek-letter laden papers is to an engineer.  You don't have to be an
expert in writing it if you're not programming in it, but you should
be able to read it and understand it.

Learning C++ before C is painful, and then it will take great work to
get your C skills up to snuff.  Learning C++ for your OO stuff may be
painful as well.

Since you're planning on learning some C, maybe learn C, learn ruby,
then if you want to branch out to OO in C, learn C++ :)
(obj C is a cool choice too, but not widely used outside of OSX)




On 4/24/07, smc smc <fixxie.wits@gmail.com> wrote:
> looks like im going to be trying to learn C...