|
![](/i/fill.gif) |
Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/02/why-cant-programmers-program.html
I few clicks away from this, I got to here:
http://www.eis.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed/paper1.pdf
I don't know about you, but *I* have always wondered why some people
find programming hard. It is a "well known" fact that there seem to be
two types of students: those who "get" programming, and find
introductory courses ridiculously easy, and those do "don't get"
programming, and find even the simplest exercises insummountably difficult.
I haven't finished reading this paper yet, but it throws some
interesting ideas out there. One particular paragraph leaps out at me:
capabilities of computers could have a massive negative impact on their
success at programming. Many of their subjects tried to use meaningful
names for their variables, apparently hoping that the machine would be
able to read and understand those names and so perceive their intentions."
Oh I have *so* seen this! People who seem to think that if they write
their code with obvious-enough names and syntax that's near-enough to
being correct, the computer will "just know" what they mean. They fail
to grasp that the syntax must be EXACTLY CORRECT, even if it seems silly
or unnecessary.
I guess it's because they're used to talking to humans. If you say
something to a human with somewhat incorrect grammer (or even
horrifyingly broken grammer), they can usually still figure out what you
mean.
Computers are far, far more stupid than humans. But decades of advances
in computing technology have brought us to the point where computers
*look clever*, even though they aren't. I suspect this might be why some
people have trouble learning to *use* a computer too.
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
Post a reply to this message
|
![](/i/fill.gif) |