On 02/26/2012 10:53 PM, Geoff Canyon wrote:
It's interesting that you bring up the slaughterhouse analogy -- I've used
it on many occasions to make the opposite point: I know that cows are
butchered to make steaks. I've seen videos of it, in fact. I shouldn't have
to learn how to do it to order at McDonalds.
There's a world of difference between "Kids today" and "computer
programmer." Forcing the 99.9% of kids who *won't* become computer
programmers to use a command line because of the .1% who will is like
forcing every kid to butcher a hog before they are allowed to eat bacon.
Has nobody thought about teaching a computer language as a way of
teaching kids to reason?
Admittedly the command line is, perhaps, a bit far fetched; and the
non-programmers can get on with their
Facebooking and whatever regardless [but they should not then say that
they know "all about computers"].
I studied Latin for quite a few years; I cannot read a book in Latin
(more's the pity); but what it did teach me was some reasoning,
some useful Indo-European roots, and an appreciation of the very real
achievements of the past, on which, as is all too often overlooked,
all our current achievements are based.
However, a bit of BASIC, PASCAL, or, for that matter, a script in xTalk
(aka Livecode) involving a few constants, variables,
loops and what-have-you, is not only valuable for the .1% who will
become programmers qua programmers; it is also
a valuable mental exercise, and should foster a greater appreciation of
the work that the .1% do; something that is
taken for granted far too much.
On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 12:14 PM, Richmond<richmondmathew...@gmail.com>wrote:
Kids today don't need to know
what a command line is because the vast majority of them will never see
one
in their lives.
Really? I wonder about that. Surely every potential computer programmer
should
have some sort of understanding of command lines. This is rather like
saying that
that children brought up in cities should have no understanding that
animals are slaughtered
so that they can have meat on their plates, because they will never see a
slaughter-house.
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