3 ms·
WikiWikiWeb users try to teach "C++"
- vezzy-fnord 13y agoI stumbled upon this incidentally while casually browsing the WikiWikiWeb. From what I can salvage, it is the discussion page to an article called CeeProgramsForBeginners, a very poorly written page ostensibly meant as an intro to C, but that instead ends up using plenty of DOS-isms, arbitrarily mixes C and C++ syntax, and pollutes the namespace. The discussion page is then a huge mess where a group of people try to teach a beginner by the alias of SusannahWilliams the language, and walk her through examples. While trying to learn C++ (and from one of those poor “X in 24 Hours” books, no less), she keeps getting fed more DOS-isms, erroneous constructs like “void main()” that are never to be used outside of niche embedded environments, all while a tide of people rant, rave, debate language semantics and drift off-topic in the background. Later, they switch to poor C++ syntax and do things like forget to add semicolons after procedure calls, but at that point, the article had already devolved into mayhem. One of the participants, ElizabethWiethoff, slaps a deletion candidate disclaimer by the end of the ordeal, and like that the article has not been touched since August 19, 2005. I found it quite humorous, as it illustrates not only the chaos of using a wiki as a bazaar-based education model, but also how the programmers can’t seem to agree with each other and hold arcane (to the pupil) technical debates in the background. Stereotypical programmer behavior.