On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 8:50 PM, Jerry Feldman <gaf@blu.org> wrote:

I agree. The important part of computer programming (and I have been a
programmer for 45 years) is that you understand the basic concepts as
well as data structures initially.


Okay. Really cool to know that you are programmer for 45 years! Such a long period!

 
A language like C can get you in trouble very fast. IMHO, Pascal was a decent language to learn some of
these concepts. IMHO, Python is an excellent first language in that it
behaves as a regular computer language, and also supports object
orientation.


Yes, Python is good.

 
But, you need to learn what a variable is, what  integers,
floats, characters, and strings are. These are the basics, but if you do
not understand how integers work using twos complement arithmetic, your
programs might fail and you may not know why.


Okay.

 
Additionally, you need to know the basic structures, like stacks (where in C and C++ your
automatic variables reside) and arrays. I personally don't like Perl as
a language to create applications, but I find it very useful for
scripting. As Parshwa intimates, pointers is an advanced topic and
requires a lot of understanding, and is not a good concept to start on.

--
Jerry Feldman



Yes, because I saw the book and Pointers was mentioned at the end of the book before which it covers a lot of, a lot of useful stuff, which takes time to be grasped!


--

Regards,
Parshwa Murdia