I'd like to point out that Lord Bulwer-Lytton is an ancestor of mine, although I wasn't conceived on a dark and stormy night (back of a VW bus for me:)
A Lisp programmer needs to know how Lisp works, not how the computer works, and will generally be more productive than a programmer in most other languages.
Teaching _sloppy_ Java encourages sloppy programming. Teaching Java is just that-teaching Java.
While I dislike bloat as much as or more than most (hey, I started on 1K/1MHz Z80 machines, did handheld game programming, I know how to cram) the issues with bloat these days aren't (_in general_) the code, it's the back end-class libraries, GUI libraries, etc.
Teaching assembly language first may have been acceptable 15 years ago, but it's simply _not_ any more.
I much prefer seeing SmallTalk or any of several Lisp variants used as intro programming languages.
Aside from the interpretive nature of this languages (yeah, I know there are both C/C++ and Java interpreters) I think they tend to develop better _thinkers_, which is what is necessary.
It is easy to predict that at a similar distance in the future little will be known about our time period. After all, it is already problematic retrieve 25 year old data from 8 inch floppies, simply because the reading mechanisms are hard to find even if the media has retained the data.
Yeah, 'cuz all of our history is written on computer media now that we live in a paperless society.
Oh, no, wait, that's what they said would happen 25 years ago on 8" floppies.
Ever notice how many books there are in a lowest-common-denominator bookstore like Borders or Barnes and Noble? Our history is not just on floppies/CDR/etc.
Slashdot Mirror
To create the worst possible opening lines.
:)
I'd like to point out that Lord Bulwer-Lytton is an ancestor of mine, although I wasn't conceived on a dark and stormy night (back of a VW bus for me
Dave
Pah.
A Lisp programmer needs to know how Lisp works, not how the computer works, and will generally be more productive than a programmer in most other languages.
Teaching _sloppy_ Java encourages sloppy programming. Teaching Java is just that-teaching Java.
While I dislike bloat as much as or more than most (hey, I started on 1K/1MHz Z80 machines, did handheld game programming, I know how to cram) the issues with bloat these days aren't (_in general_) the code, it's the back end-class libraries, GUI libraries, etc.
Teaching assembly language first may have been acceptable 15 years ago, but it's simply _not_ any more.
Dave Dave
I much prefer seeing SmallTalk or any of several Lisp variants used as intro programming languages.
Aside from the interpretive nature of this languages (yeah, I know there are both C/C++ and Java interpreters) I think they tend to develop better _thinkers_, which is what is necessary.
Dave
However, the student is within his civil rights to, as you put it, "bitch about the fascist administration".
Sure, but the school is well within its rights to decide what it will and won't tolerate on its campus.
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; [...]
Notice how Congress hasn't; the school has.
Dave
There is no possibility a city will get fried by microwave energy.
Of course there's a possibility, don't be ridiculous.
The simple fact is that our energy problems are solvable far, far closer to the ground, and for far less money.
Dave
It is easy to predict that at a similar distance in the future little will be known about our time period. After all, it is already problematic retrieve 25 year old data from 8 inch floppies, simply because the reading mechanisms are hard to find even if the media has retained the data.
Yeah, 'cuz all of our history is written on computer media now that we live in a paperless society.
Oh, no, wait, that's what they said would happen 25 years ago on 8" floppies.
Ever notice how many books there are in a lowest-common-denominator bookstore like Borders or Barnes and Noble? Our history is not just on floppies/CDR/etc.
Dave