Can Novices Jump Directly in C? (Books)

[Erik Naggum]

In article <1991Feb8.221802.22573 at hellgate.utah.edu>, Bob Angell writes:
> K&R along with other texts have been very useful, however, the only
> real way to learn any language is to go at it slow and just start
> using it.  There will be times when you forget to open files, etc (C
> allows even the most stupid of things trick you into believing that
> they work).

Not to be nasty, but my point is that a little more exposure to C code
before writing any would be a Good Thing.  Understanding C code
written by others should be more rewarding than writing your own more
or less meaningless example programs, I think.  It's like reading a
difficult math text and suddenly grasping something, as opposed to sit
down and figure out differential calculus just because you want to
design a tackle with rope and pulleys.  The latter can be practical
and immensely rewarding, but you're going to spend some time sweating,
much more than you would need to do if you listened to the people who
figure it out before you.  (Of course, to solidify your new knowledge,
practice is needed!)

Maybe my basic complaint is that programmers refuse to learn from the
experience of prior actors in the field, or that that is the way the
subject is approached.

A few years ago, I met a very bright girl who wanted to become an
author, and almost everything she did was motivated with "I need to
read (about) this because I will need it to become an author."  It was
pure delight to watch her progress.  She asked me how she could
approach my field of interest (programming languages, communications,
text processing, standardization), and I was not able to find any
material which would enable her to read about any of these topics with
the intent to understand their nature rather than their minute
details.  Such books exist in almost all the other fields I've played
(economics, finance, linguistics, psychology, philosophy, marketing,
law, ...).  Perhaps this is just too young a discipline, yet.

...just lamenting, I guess.

--
[Erik Naggum]					     <enag at ifi.uio.no>
Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway			   <erik at naggum.uu.no>