Re:On the foolishness of “natural language programming” (1979)
by xtiansimon on Sunday September 20, 2020 @09:27AM
(#24533895)
<shudder> AppleScript was my first self-guided investigation into programming, and I gave up. Followed by scripting for web with PHP & JavaScript (which is its own mess). Only with Python was I able to pick up the practice, and then only because my worked moved into accounting—programming language and objectives are closely aligned.
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Re:On the foolishness of “natural language programming” (1979)
by klyrs on Sunday September 20, 2020 @12:08PM
(#24534776)
I've heard far too many cs profs/TAs proclaim that "you get it or you don't" -- that either students come in with some innate ability to program, or they're a lost cause whose role in life is to bring down the cost of education for those worthy of it. Y'know, curmudgeons like Dijkstra. My response to this is generally that one can teach, or they can't, and that blaming the student is intellectual laziness. Also that they probably got their job on research talent and not teaching ability.
I was the same way with math. Stank at it 'til the context was right.
Re:On the foolishness of “natural language programming” (1979)
by hyperdimension on Sunday September 20, 2020 @09:31AM
(#24533920)
On the subject of syntax...
</shudder> ;)