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"Through my years in a university computer science program, this way of thinking was peddled repeatedly. Learning how to manage memory in C was an endeavor to “

"Through my years in a university computer science program, this way of thinking was peddled repeatedly. Learning how to manage memory in C was an endeavor to “learn how things work”, strictly for academic purposes. The idea that anyone would ever actually do manual memory management in C these days was just unthinkable—I mean, after all, it’s current year, and everyone knows that once it’s current year, an arbitrary set of ideas that I don’t like become intrinsically false." It's impossible for me not to read this without imagining a sneering tone. And a few paragraphs later: "As you may be able to tell from my tone, I think this way of thinking is nonsensical." As for your post, it's hard for me to get worked up about whatever the game programming curriculum is these days. There are more important things in the world. Good to keep things in perspective: it's school... for game programming.

adamrezich 4y ago
it's hard to present contrarian ideas without coming across as overly defensive, sneering, etc., especially when the ideas are conveyed through text, and especially when you, the reader, disagree with them. the paragraph you posted is true to my experience, and true to the experience of everyone I know who's gone through CS school. > Education around memory management—as it was presented to me—was purely a historical, academic endeavor. How did the Linux kernel originally do memory management? Let’s do an assignment on that subject so you can see how gross it is! Eww, look at that malloc! Weird! Oh, don’t forget to free it! But don’t worry, kiddo; in next class, you can return to your “safe” and “managed” padded-room languages where bugs and instabilities are “impossible” (or so they claim). was your CS education appreciably different to what the author wrote above? is this not the increasingly-prevailing attitude among contemporary programmers? > As for your post, it's hard for me to get worked up about whatever the game programming curriculum is these days. There are more important things in the world. Good to keep things in perspective: it's school... for game programming. ok, should I refrain from posting unless I have something to say about world hunger or climate change or something?? hopefully you saw the point I was making which is that memory management techniques like those described in the article are pretty crucial for making high-performance real-time interactive applications, and hopefully you understand that not being taught about such things at a school whose whole point is to teach such things is pretty crazy—especially since, from the looks of things, these things aren't really being taught in school anywhere else, either! do you disagree with the author about the importance of manual memory management techniques and theory? if not, then what other point were you trying to make with that last paragraph? your reply is very confusing to me. --- EDIT: > If you slow down > Maybe because it's a relatively inconsequential topic (in the grand scheme of things) we can approach it more calmly and soberly instead of with a hyperventilating tone. > I would also say that while it can be difficult for some people to approach tendentious issues without being combative, it is indeed possible. Some might even say it's a useful skill to spend some time picking up. these are more condescending than anything in the article—projecting irrationality onto others is unbecoming. > That said, whether or not I agree with the author isn't salient it should be! discussions about programming techniques and methodologies are far more interesting and relevant than sentence after sentence explaining why you think the tone of the introduction of a lengthy article is Bad And Wrong, and, despite refusing to read the rest of said article, claiming that said article's length is also problematic.
- sfpotter 4y ago
  If you slow down and read my original post again, you'll see that I said that I was "among the most receptive to what he's trying to say". I clicked through to this post because it's a topic I wanted to read about. I was turned off by the way the article was written. That said, whether or not I agree with the author isn't salient---probably why you're confused by what I wrote. Manual memory management is definitely an interesting topic of discussion, with important ramifications in the field of software engineering. Like you said, world hunger and climate change it is not. Maybe because it's a relatively inconsequential topic (in the grand scheme of things) we can approach it more calmly and soberly instead of with a hyperventilating tone. I would also say that while it can be difficult for some people to approach tendentious issues without being combative, it is indeed possible. Some might even say it's a useful skill to spend some time picking up.
Verdex 4y ago
> It's impossible for me not to read this without imagining a sneering tone. Okay. Yeah, that doesn't seem great. > There are more important things in the world. Good to keep things in perspective: it's school... for game programming. Wait a second. Isn't your own statement kind of hard to read without a sneering tone? In defense of videogames. It's only a massive industry that drives technological developments massively useful in other industries; while at the same time, providing entertainment, recreation, and escape for billions of people. In defense of complaining about sneering tones while having one yourself: <space intentionally left blank>
- sfpotter 4y ago
  Did I attack video games?

adamrezich 4y ago

it's hard to present contrarian ideas without coming across as overly defensive, sneering, etc., especially when the ideas are conveyed through text, and especially when you, the reader, disagree with them. the paragraph you posted is true to my experience, and true to the experience of everyone I know who's gone through CS school. > Education around memory management—as it was presented to me—was purely a historical, academic endeavor. How did the Linux kernel originally do memory management? Let’s do an assignment on that subject so you can see how gross it is! Eww, look at that malloc! Weird! Oh, don’t forget to free it! But don’t worry, kiddo; in next class, you can return to your “safe” and “managed” padded-room languages where bugs and instabilities are “impossible” (or so they claim). was your CS education appreciably different to what the author wrote above? is this not the increasingly-prevailing attitude among contemporary programmers? > As for your post, it's hard for me to get worked up about whatever the game programming curriculum is these days. There are more important things in the world. Good to keep things in perspective: it's school... for game programming. ok, should I refrain from posting unless I have something to say about world hunger or climate change or something?? hopefully you saw the point I was making which is that memory management techniques like those described in the article are pretty crucial for making high-performance real-time interactive applications, and hopefully you understand that not being taught about such things at a school whose whole point is to teach such things is pretty crazy—especially since, from the looks of things, these things aren't really being taught in school anywhere else, either! do you disagree with the author about the importance of manual memory management techniques and theory? if not, then what other point were you trying to make with that last paragraph? your reply is very confusing to me. --- EDIT: > If you slow down > Maybe because it's a relatively inconsequential topic (in the grand scheme of things) we can approach it more calmly and soberly instead of with a hyperventilating tone. > I would also say that while it can be difficult for some people to approach tendentious issues without being combative, it is indeed possible. Some might even say it's a useful skill to spend some time picking up. these are more condescending than anything in the article—projecting irrationality onto others is unbecoming. > That said, whether or not I agree with the author isn't salient it should be! discussions about programming techniques and methodologies are far more interesting and relevant than sentence after sentence explaining why you think the tone of the introduction of a lengthy article is Bad And Wrong, and, despite refusing to read the rest of said article, claiming that said article's length is also problematic.

sfpotter 4y ago
If you slow down and read my original post again, you'll see that I said that I was "among the most receptive to what he's trying to say". I clicked through to this post because it's a topic I wanted to read about. I was turned off by the way the article was written. That said, whether or not I agree with the author isn't salient---probably why you're confused by what I wrote. Manual memory management is definitely an interesting topic of discussion, with important ramifications in the field of software engineering. Like you said, world hunger and climate change it is not. Maybe because it's a relatively inconsequential topic (in the grand scheme of things) we can approach it more calmly and soberly instead of with a hyperventilating tone. I would also say that while it can be difficult for some people to approach tendentious issues without being combative, it is indeed possible. Some might even say it's a useful skill to spend some time picking up.

Verdex 4y ago

> It's impossible for me not to read this without imagining a sneering tone. Okay. Yeah, that doesn't seem great. > There are more important things in the world. Good to keep things in perspective: it's school... for game programming. Wait a second. Isn't your own statement kind of hard to read without a sneering tone? In defense of videogames. It's only a massive industry that drives technological developments massively useful in other industries; while at the same time, providing entertainment, recreation, and escape for billions of people. In defense of complaining about sneering tones while having one yourself: <space intentionally left blank>

sfpotter 4y ago
Did I attack video games?