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Barefoot Andrew Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 21 Mar 2007 Posts: 22780 Location: In the 17th century
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toggle
Joined: 30 Dec 2006 Posts: 11622 Location: truro
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ninat
Joined: 01 Feb 2009 Posts: 606 Location: Scotland
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anoia
Joined: 14 Nov 2010 Posts: 47 Location: Hertfordshire
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chez
Joined: 13 Aug 2006 Posts: 35934 Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset
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oldish chris
Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 4148 Location: Comfortably Wet Southport
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 45374 Location: yes
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OP
Joined: 28 Jul 2006 Posts: 4661 Location: Yorkshire
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Posted: Wed Jan 25, 12 8:27 pm Post subject: |
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I also grew up on BBC Basic, but things have changed and I don't think modern children would tolerate that ratio of input (hundreds of lines of code typed by hand) to output (e.g. a program that converts Fahrenheit to Centigrade). I'm sure Spitfire pilots feel the same about today's fly-by-wire jet pilots. Progress has been made but something has been lost.
If anyone wants to know what real programming is about, you can still buy "The C Programming Language", often known as "K&R" after the authors.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/C-Programming-Language-2nd/dp/0131103628/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327522471&sr=8-1
It's effectively a dead language now, but it remains an amazing insight into the essence of programming, and the concepts it introduced were adopted in all modern computer languages. I can still remember staying late after work for many weeks to photocopy pages of this book, in the days before I could afford my own copy (I have a feeling the price hasn't changed but inflation has caught up with it). This is not "programming for dummies", quite the opposite, you'll have to work to understand it - but that's a good thing. It helps that unlike most geek-books, it is written in a highly literary style. Even today its influence is everywhere - it was K&R who taught us that lower case was good! |
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