On Tue, 14 Feb 2006, stephen white wrote: > On 13/02/2006, at 11:29 PM, Chris Foote wrote: >> On Mon, 13 Feb 2006, Daryl Tester wrote: >>> I've got some leave coming up soon, and I'm hoping to make a >>> significant >>> dent in SICP. I've had several abortive attempts at it, but 10 >>> minutes >>> or so here or there doesn't soak into the brain well. >> >> hehe.. I bought the book last year and I managed to get to page 43 :-( > > I had that book for two of my subjects (I think I may have been the > one who recommended it to Daryl?) at Adelaide Uni, and it's > incredibly dense material. It covers about the same amount per > paragraph as other books cover per subject, confirming my theory that > it's used for weeding out students at MIT. It's a first year book > over there!
I don't know why it's ever touted as being useful for a beginner's course in computer science. No doubt the MIT students would agree :-) >>>> Especially since we already have a Ruby troll on the list. :) >>> He's harmless provided you don't get him wet or feed him after >>> midnight. >> ... or get him started on Python's "list comprehensions" versus Ruby's > > Part of the reason I'm a Ruby Troll is because it was the first time > I was exposed to the original Smalltalk version of Object Oriented > Programming. Years of painful miscomprehension induced by the > abortion of C++ and its legions sloughed off in an instant(iation), > as the clear shining vision of Alan Kay dawned on my mindscape! I come from the C world and I never got past using OO for encapsulation and basic interheritance with C++. I found that using OO in Python was so natural that I started to learn new concepts and finally a reason why OO was considered useful. It got me interested in programming again, and I'm looking at moving to a career in software engineering because of it (it's a shame that Python isn't more widely accepted!). I suppose learning and using Java/Smalltalk/Ruby might have also had the same benefits, but I just didn't have the time up my sleeve. > Firmly into Objective C these days, using Smalltalk as a scripting > layer on top of compiled Smalltalk with implementation in C. > Languages go in the strangest directions! Any reason for using Smalltalk over Ruby ? (i.e. If you progressed from Ruby to Smalltalk, then there must have been some benefit). How on earth did Objective C sneak in there ? -- Chris Foote <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Inetd Pty Ltd T/A HostExpress Web: http://www.hostexpress.com.au Blog: http://www.hostexpress.com.au/drupal/chris Phone: (08) 8410 4566 _______________________________________________ sapug mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/sapug
