On Jan 2, 2008 9:25 PM, David Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, Jan 02, 2008 at 08:27:13PM -0800, SJS wrote: > > >Indeed. And that's not the expectation. Day-to-day, the problem with IAS > >is that I can't comfortably read it. The ability to comfortably and > >unambiguously READ code is important to me. > > Perhaps that is just because you're not used to it? It is a different way > of visualizing things, but humans seem pretty good at learning. > > >What's amusing is that when I do read python or IAS psuedocode in a book > >(or printed out), I annotate it with vertical lines from the initial > >keyword to the closing block. That is, > > > > while expression1 while expression1 > > if expression2 | if expression2 > > do something ===> | | do something > > else | else > > do something else | |__do something else > > |_____ > > I find the code on the right significantly more difficult to read. The > lines are just noise that make the code harder to find.
Agreed. Noise is all that was added. I do hope such abortions are not being taught. > I guess one question is: are these differences between us "hardwired" or > are they learned. There seems to be an assumption here that anyone, no matter how wired, "should" be a programmer. I would say that if you are not wired in a certain way then it makes no sense at all for you to even try to be a programmer. I will go further and say that if you truly find yourself unable to grok alternative syntax then, maybe just maybe, you should consider another field of human endeavor. There are, after all, many things that humans can do. I never tried to win a singing contest. No amount of training could make up for a basic lack of talent. We have over 6 Billion people on this planet. I suspect that amongst that population we can find enough talented people so that it makes more sense to seek them out than to try to turn those with lesser talents into programmers. Count me on the side of globalization. Let's distribute the opportunity. Harsh perhaps, but where is it written that everyone should be a programmer? What are the minimum talents that we should expect? How do we find those people with superior talents and see to it that they are the ones who get the requisite education and opportunity? The proof though is _not_ in my opinion nor yours nor that of anyone on this list. The proof is in the production of useful code that can be maintained by other programmers. And in the distribution of the opportunity to produce that code to the largest possible population. BobLQ "Getting old an crochety" -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-lpsg
