[Tutor] Re: Python vs. C [learning C?]

[Vicki Stanfield]

>
>
> On Fri, 9 Jan 2004, Stanfield, Vicki {D167~Indianapolis} wrote:
>
>> Peter Jakubowicz wrote on Tue, 06 Jan 2004 20:55:06 -0800:
>>
>> > this because my Python programs are getting bigger, and occasionally I
>> > wonder if I want to learn C too. Plus, I've gotten to like programming
>>
>> I always advocate learning C. If nothing else, it teaches you how memory
>> management is accomplished which languages which manage memory for you
>> like Python do not teach. I recommend learning C, doing lots of mallocs
>> and the like to get the feel for them, doing a lot of pointer stuff for
>> the same reason, and then abandoning C for Python.
>
> Hi Vicki,
>
> I wouldn't totally abandon C.  It does come in handy every once in a
> while.  I know I wrote a lot of stuff about how C is unsafe --- but
> despite that, it's still a valuable language to learn.  If anything, it
> helps one to appreciate how amazingly precise and simple our computers
> are, and how vaguely fuzzy we humans are. *grin*

Yes, I didn't write that well. I do a lot of C vocationally but less
avocationally. My point was, as you said, that C is a very valuable
jumping off point. I am really disappointed with teaching someone the easy
way first. I hated it when many schools stopped teaching programming in a
UNIX environment in favor of the "everything is in the compiler" method. I
think it is invaluable to get on a command line and type out your C
compile statements complete with including Libs and headers. After you
know that stuff, sure, use a compiler where it is largely obfuscated
behind a pretty gui. But know what the compiler is doing and where it
expects the lib and header files to be! I recommend C on a Linux box as a
first step to learning programming.

--vicki