[Edu-sig] Learning (some more) programming

[Arthur]

Scott David Daniels wrote:

>Arthur wrote:
>  
>
>>Have dug in quite a bit to VPython's code, which has become an intensive 
>>C++ course for me.  And have accomplished a good deal in keeping the 
>>project moving forward, healthy and on-track.  I happen to be proud of that.
>>    
>>
>
>I recommend you read Stroustrup's book, "The Design and Evolution of C++."
>It will give you a nice skeleton around which to wrap your understanding
>of C++, and help you understand how C++ came to be the way it is.
>
>  
>
I would love to, and should, and probably won't - at least until some 
time considerably later in the game.

The effort to do so does not, in my mind, speak directly enough to my 
motivations.

The relationship of my learning style, and the fact that I was 
originally drawn toward the study of literature again strikes me.

But the "work" I am studying is the VPython code, not the C++ language 
itself.

The fact that the code is dense and difficult, and that I can only 
understand it in fits and starts and that it requires numerous iterative 
passes at it in order to begin to "get it",  is a motivational plus, 
rather than a motivational negative.  It becomes a game worth playing.  
It feels efficient.

Guess I have a decent tolerance for being at sea, as long as I know that 
only time, focus, and effort is between me and some  land.

The analysis/understanding of dense working code is to me the starting 
point.  Understanding something of the language anatomy is a byproduct 
of that effort, not the focus of it.

I feel strongly that this top->down approach to learning in relationship 
to programming, rather than an atomic bottom->up approach approach, is 
not generally given its do.

Which is part of why I bring the subject and my experience up - here.

Art