Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (2773 mails)

[activex1@xxxxxxx (Sam Carleton)]

Jim Ray wrote:

> On Wed, 22 Dec 1999 avi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> > Actually, one thing I found over the years is that many people that are
> > experienced with traditional programming languages have a hard time to
> > get used to the paradigm change that OOP brings.  On the other hand,
> > people with no experience with C have an easier time to learn OO
> > languages.
>
> I agree with Avi.  It took me a long time to get OO to click when moving
> from C to Java.  Finally I learned Python and the brainwaves finally
> synced.  Some of my problem with OO was I just wanted to understand too
> much, I think, and started by reading an OO book and then tried to learn
> Java.  Now I think OO is easy and actually makes more sense at certain
> times.

Jim,

I was wondering a few things:  How long where you a C programmer before you
first tried to learn OOP?  It is my believe that if you learn C and then move
onto C++, you don't get stuck in the mindset of functional programming and
learning OOP will not be that much harder.  I also take a different approach
then you to learning language, I think.  I like to first learn what the
language can do for me rather then what I can do with the langauge.

The  book I used to learne C is "Teach Yourself C" by Herbert Schildt, the
ISBN number is 0078823110.  This book has a number of things going for it.
First it teach you want the language can do, it covers things like functions
pointers.  It explains the consept of them and shows you a very basic
example.  There is enough information there so that if you are looking at
someone elses code and see a function pointer you are not totally lost.  But
there isn't enough info to effectively use a function pointer.  Most things
Schildt covers this way.  Another thing that I liked about it and way it was
recommended to me in the first place was that rather then only having
exercises at the end of each chapter, there where exercises (normall three)
at the end of each section with the answers in the back of the book.  In
other words he gives you a new tool and then tells you to play with that one
little tool.  It helped me understand things a great deal, being a hands on
learner and all:)  I have the first edition, I found that for the most part
it was a fast read, even working throught many of the examples.

When I was done with the book, I could read anyone elses C code without
running into a tool C has to offer that I did not understand or at least not
know about.  I could also put together simple programs.  With this base of
knowledge, though, I have been about to pick up the concepts of C++ and other
langues very quickly.

How did I learn to really write code?  Through work, I work as a programmer.
But others can also learn to program by looking at other people's code and by
joining one of the many teams of programmers working on different projects
for Linux.

I am also a photographer and take the same attitude, the more you know about
what the tools can and cannot do, the more power you have to create what you
invision.  On the other hand, if you only know the theory but lack the
knowledge of how to turn a theory into something real, you will spend many
hours beating your head against the wall.  It sounds to me this is what
happened to you when you first started learning OOP, am I write?

Sam


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