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When you teach programming, you teach reading, writing and logic as well.
by kolinko 13y ago
When you teach programming, you teach reading, writing and logic as well.
- kylemaxwell 13y agoIf that were the case, then programmers would have fantastic documentation skills. And yet, by and large that's not the case.
- platz 13y agoAgree - I tire of the grammar used by techies and programmers which, even writing in their native language, sounds like one of a 2nd-year foreign immigrant. They cannot (or care not to) empathize with how a reader might interpret their words.
- kolinko 13y agoGood documentation takes effort. I bet much of the docs are lousy because of laziness or poor priorities. Apart from that, the question is not whether the documentation is good or bad, but whether it's better or worse than the one a non-programmer would write. Finally, even apart from writing skills, programming teaches you how to comprehend what you're reading (docs), and how to solve problems.
- timr 13y agoAgain, let me assure you: no. You pretty much work with what you're given. Nobody teaches basic English at the college level unless they're being paid specifically to bring remedial students up to speed (and before you ask: yes, that includes freshman English class). I've taught a few "writing intensive" lab courses, but that basically meant that we forced the students to write a lot, and that we were allowed to brutalize them for crappy writing (roughly 85% of the students). We spent no time teaching them how to write, nor could we: we barely had time to teach the subject at hand.