From: David Masover <ninja@...>
Date: 2008-05-29T05:52:23+09:00
Subject: Re: Rails tool, advice much appreciated

On Wednesday 28 May 2008 14:37:56 Mark Wilden wrote:
> On May 28, 2008, at 4:03 AM, Albert Schlef wrote:
> 
> > Mark Wilden wrote:
> >> Programming is much more about knowing where to find
> >> the answer
> >
> > Flash cards aren't meant for "finding the answer". That's because
> > they're random (and flashy ;-)
> 
> That's exactly what I meant. Since programming _is_ about "finding the  
> answer," I don't think flash cards are the best way to learn a  
> framework.

But learning a framework is very different than learning to program.

There are a few Rails-isms that are very much syntactical, like

5.hours.ago

> I try to state it more simply: Flashcards are great for memorizing  
> stuff. Memorizing stuff isn't very useful in programming. Therefore,  
> flashcards aren't very useful to learn programming (including learning  
> a language or a framework).

I think the point is that learning a framework is very different than learning 
a language. Learning a language involves a new way of thinking, and problem 
solving, and a bit of syntax. Learning a framework is mostly memorizing.

Simple example: It would probably take less than a day to teach any programmer 
C, assuming they didn't know. There's just not much to it.

However, to learn to _program_ in C, you're going to want to know the C 
standard library, at least. That's going to mean knowing things like strcmp. 
And it's going to be almost entirely memorizing.

There is some overlap, of course. Some frameworks, especially in a DSL-heavy 
language like Ruby, will play tricks with syntax and with your assumptions 
about the language. But I can see why this argument is being made for 
Rails -- once you grok MVC, and a few odd conventions like method calls in 
your class definitions (has_many, validates_uniqueness_of, and friends), the 
rest is mostly going to be memorizing details like the difference between 
AssociationProxy#size and AssociationProxy#length. (That's important, by the 
way!)