Re:Programming Languages Have Social Mores Not Idioms
by pacala on Monday August 20, 2012 @12:44AM
(#4406294)
Natural != how the machine works. Few of us have the faintest clue about how the laws of thermodynamics apply to the internal combustion engine or how solid state physics leads to semiconductors leads to electronics leads to electronic injection. Yet we all drive cars as naturally as we walk.
Re:Programming Languages Have Social Mores Not Idioms
by thedufer on Monday August 20, 2012 @03:02PM
(#4409210)
I'd argue that your analogy strengthens my point. In their original form, cars involved people manipulating the mechanical parts as directly as possible (the steering wheel was completely tied to the front axle, the gas pedal, brake, starting crank all directly controlled a single aspect). And yet, we drive cars so naturally. I think using the word natural in this sense makes a lot of sense.
I think we already teach beginners that you calculate the sum of the squares of a list of numbers with a for loop. Actually, its a fairly common type of problem when you're learning about for loops. Maybe I'm missing your point?