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Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

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Re: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

#291

Post by quonn »

tester457 wrote: post #93
quonn wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People can even practice programming on their phone with termux. Anyone can program anytime instead of having to wait to use the family computer for just an hour like back in the day. It's so easy to get mileage in. It may be like that for some, but generally in the 90s computers were widely available and those interested were usually allowed by their family to use them as needed. There were tutorials. There were d…

In countries like America yes those 90s computers were widely available. But now practically everyone no matter the country has a phone now. The availability is much higher. There are more ways to learn, videos from harvard and fun games are the new introductions instead of manuals.

Sure, for a few countries (perhaps Brazil, India, China). That is not really related to technological progress but to economical development in those countries, though.

Everyone else either had that access (Europe, Australia, Japan, even Russia) or is still too poor to have time or is lacking the necessary fundamental education to be able to focus on it even now (for example, much of Africa, unfortunately).

Re: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

#292

Post by sirsinsalot »

My first learning exercise was using the tutorial system of the Turbo Pascal IDE.

It taught me variables, expressions and how the tooling works.

I was 6 years old and that was that.

That was 31 years ago and I still feel like I know only a tiny tiny fraction of my field. It is terrifyingly awesome. I hope I always feel this way.

Re: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

#293

Post by bmitc »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #210
bmitc wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What do you think a mechanic does ALL DAY? Are you implying that they are fixing their tools rather than cars? I don't know any mechanic that would put up with that and would replace their tools with tools that actually work.

Except mechanics tools are fairly simple devices based on thousands of years of standardization. I think probably a better example would be someone working in a lab on experimental devices. Software tooling is often absurdly complex and relatively new with no clear standard. In 100 years I’ll wager things are not like this.

> Software tooling is often absurdly complex and relatively new with no clear standard.

That was my entire point.

Re: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

#294

Post by bmitc »

MrVandemar wrote: post #284
bmitc wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What do you think a mechanic does ALL DAY? Are you implying that they are fixing their tools rather than cars? I don't know any mechanic that would put up with that and would replace their tools with tools that actually work.

I think the implication was that mechanics generally spend all day "debugging" a car or other machine.

Yes, exactly, because that's actually supporting my point. That is their job, so they spend all day doing their job instead of diversions along the way.

Re: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

#295

Post by alentred »

dang wrote: post #99
jansan wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure if this is criticism for too many reposts or if once a year is considered a healthy dose of dupes.

It's just for fun and interest, as the other replies have pointed out. I've added my standard disclaimer to the comment above. Reposts are fine after a year or so! This is in the FAQ: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html .

Thank you for the link to the FAQ! Unless I blacked it out, I don't think I have read it before. Now that I know it exists I can see it clearly in the page footer, alongside the Guidelines... I will go and read those, but I also wonder if this should be reposted from time to time too.

Re: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

#297

Post by julian_t »

nyjah wrote: post #187
miiiiiike wrote: post #155

I bought a copy of "Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours" at a CompUSA in 1999. The guy at the checkout looked at it, laughed, and told me about this article. When I was 16 I was looking at programming books at Borders and a guy handed me a copy of "The C Programming Language"; changed my life. So much of my career has been shaped by running into developers or just people interested in programming out in the world. Th…

I used to love standing at borders looking at all the computer books. I still have my copies of Ivor Hortons beginning C and beginning c++. I never see that guy getting love in the programming author world, but that was my guy when I was a teen.

I wrote a few things for Wrox back then. Ivor managed to get his books onto the reading lists for a few US colleges, and that ensured a steady flow of royalties (and requests for updated versions). I was quite jealous.

Re: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

#298

Post by OwlsParlay »

dang wrote: post #83

16 years' worth of threads: (edit: Reposts are fine after a year or so; links to past threads are just to satisfy extra-curious readers) Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33287618 - Oct 2022 (112 comments) Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27411276 - June 2021 (115 comments) Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years…

I wonder if any of the commentators from 2007-2013 can share what they've learned in 10 years

Re: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

#299

Post by jjtheblunt »

obmelvin wrote: post #276
jjtheblunt wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is family ever in the store next to Costco (which is a null pointer exception), such that meeting on foot with clear bags holding presents is no longer secret? I think that’s the challenge he described.

It seems unlikely to me that the majority of CompUSA purchases were presents while running errands with the recipient.

Yeah i had never done that either, and also miss CompUSA.

Re: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

#300

Post by jjtheblunt »

paulddraper wrote: post #271
jjtheblunt wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is family ever in the store next to Costco (which is a null pointer exception), such that meeting on foot with clear bags holding presents is no longer secret? I think that’s the challenge he described.

I'm talking about the other thing

Ah; makes sense
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