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If you're coming in as a programming novice, "each" and "for" constructs should look equally as foreign, so you may as well teach the standard conventions. It t
by macspoofing 14y ago
If you're coming in as a programming novice, "each" and "for" constructs should look equally as foreign, so you may as well teach the standard conventions. It takes longer to unlearn something, than it is to learn.
>You aren't creating programmers, you're creating good little Rubyists.
You should be creating good Rubyists, if you're using Ruby to teach programming.
- pbiggar 14y agoIf your goal is to create programmers, then you should be creating programmers, not good little rubyists/pythonistas/etc
- slurgfest 14y agoI don't see how learning how to use a language according to its conventions makes one not a programmer.
- pbiggar 14y agoAccording to Zed in the article, `for` requires fewer concepts to be fully explained, which `.each` only achieves teaching people to be "Good little rubyists".
- slurgfest 14y agoI don't see how learning either one makes someone less of a programmer. It seems like you have made a false dichotomy.
- pbiggar 14y agoOne must choose between `for` and `.each` (lets assume we agree that teaching just one is the best approach), so you optimize for your goal of "good programmer", over "good little rubyist".
- macspoofing 14y agoThere's no difference between a good rubyist and a good programmer. By definition, a good rubyist will have a solid understanding of algorithms, OO, design patterns and anything else that makes one a good programmer.