From: Dave Bass <davebass@...>
Date: 2008-05-31T01:18:36+09:00
Subject: Re: Should I Learn Ruby as a First Language?

Mark Wilden wrote:
> With top-down, you start with your ultimate objective, and
> stop when you've gone down far enough.

But you never really understand what you're doing; you end up learning a 
set of rules and prescriptions instead of basic principles. Do this and 
it works; do that and it doesn't.

Of course this could get very philosophical. What do I mean by "really", 
"understand" and "basic principles"?  ;-)

You can certainly drive a car without knowing what goes on inside the 
engine. Millions do. But some of us (especially those from an 
engineering background) like to know how it works, at least in outline.

Having said that, I have no wish to delve into Ruby's C source code. But 
if I wanted to, I could!
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.