Software Engineering Vs. Fun

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MSDN Blog Postings » Software Engineering Vs. Fun — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:36:09 GMT

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re: Software Engineering Vs. Fun

Isaac — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 00:27:50 GMT

Hi Al. Both links point to the same post :(

re: Software Engineering Vs. Fun

Alfred Thompson — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 00:35:14 GMT

Good catch Isaac! Easy enough to fix and now fixed. Thanks for the assist!

re: Software Engineering Vs. Fun

Tom — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 05:32:52 GMT

Well, you had me until the Visual Basic part. I just cannot agree with that as the first programming language. After all, how could you advocate VB instead of C#, when the two languages are so very similar, except for C# which has much more elegant syntax?

In addition, C# is a much better stepping stone into any of the other popular languages: C, C++, Java, or even Visual Basic. Learning VB first, and then moving over to C#, would be somewhat uncomfortable for students.

I first learned programming in BASIC, then assembly, and finally Pascal is where I really developed a love for programming, and coincendentally when I first really leared about computer science stuff like data structures. I see C# as a modern Pascal in that regards - a nice, clean, powerful language not totally weighed down by complexity and legacy compatibility.

re: Software Engineering Vs. Fun

Alfred Thompson — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:25:25 GMT

I do like C#. No question that it is a great langauge. And you have a point about it being a good stepping stone to other languages especially C family languages. But elegant? I'll have to disagree with you there. I've been using various C based languages for 25+ some years and various versions of BASIC for over 30. I'll take a good BASIC (and VB is about the best ever) over a C style langauge for syntax most days. But I will not fight with someone who chooses C# over it.

I was never fond of PASCAL BTW. I had to use it professionally and I did teach it one year. As a teaching language it was ok. As a professional language the I/O left a lot to be desired I thought.

I started with FORTRAN, then BASIC (BASIC PLUS actually) and then COBOL. C, C++, Java and others came later.

DIBOL was a very cool little language that taught me a lot about data structures and other things. It didn't have a floating point type but you could and did simulate that by "remembering" where the decimal point went. I played with a bunch of other high level languages and a half dozen (at least) assembly languages over the years. I think I learned about one new programming language every two or three years for the last 35 years. I learned something from all of them. People who only know two or three programming languages are missing out I think.