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*

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