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Is this the state of things today...from the top-down, trickle through the stack learning 'the things' Yes, the path most people will take today is from high-l
by yaseer 9y ago
Is this the state of things today...from the top-down, trickle through the stack learning 'the things'
Yes, the path most people will take today is from high-level languages and high-level abstractions, down to low level abstractions. It's not any better or worse than a bottom-up approach for learning. The fact that people are going down through the stack, trying to learn and understand things as they go is to be celebrated, not to be rued.
A top-down approach for learning makes logical and logistical sense in 2017, given the demand for developers operating on high-level abstractions. The bottom-up approach made sense, circa 1972 when C appeared. Neither approach is 'better', IMO.
- taneq 9y agoMy grandad used to say if you learn to sail a small boat properly, you can then learn to sail a big boat, but if you learn to sail a big boat first, you'll never really learn to sail a small boat properly. I think the analogy holds here.
- eecc 9y agoWell, what counts as big and small in this case? C or Js?
- 1_player 9y agoI suppose small == low level (C), big == high level (JS)
- Sacho 9y agoWhy can't you learn to sail a small boat properly after learning to sail a big boat? I don't see how the example works in the first place.
- smallhands 9y agowhat the grandfather is trying to say by my own understand is learning to sail small boat when big boat sinks small boat sailing skill is the only thing that will save your hide.the old man is wise
- yaseer 9y agoyou'll never really learn to sail a small boat properly This analogy lost its sway for me with the word 'never'. It's not impossible, in either case. Perhaps working with a small boat / low-level language is indeed 'harder', so you may be better equipped to deal with the higher-level easier language, after learning the low-level language. Teaching high level languages down to low level languages would be an increase in difficulty, and thus that becomes one logical path for learning. I'm not saying this path satisfies all learning use-cases, merely perhaps the majority in 2017. I'm not familiar enough with sailing to say whether the same principle transfers to boats...
- taneq 9y agoI think I somewhat misremembered the quote - it should have been "If you learn to sail a small boat, you can sail a big boat. If you learn to sail a big boat, you can't sail a small boat." It's not about easier/harder. It's about responsibility and understanding. Sailing a small boat is a "full stack" activity, from trip planning to navigation to the low level mechanics of jibing and tacking, even the act of physically keeping the boat upright if you're using a centerboard. Sailing a large boat usually sees you in a specific role, doing a specific niche thing, and you never get an overview of the whole process. The same applies to working in a large team of any sort, which is why you see software developers who can't write FizzBuzz but who nonetheless do fine in their particular niche.
- carapace 9y agoThomson's Rule for First-Time Telescope Makers: "It is faster to make a four-inch mirror then a six-inch mirror than to make a six-inch mirror." -- Programming Pearls, Communications of the ACM, September 1985