Date:	Tue, 3 Dec 1996 08:32:22 +0200 (IST)
From:	Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To:	Elliott Oti <e DOT oti AT stud DOT warande DOT ruu DOT nl>
cc:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: Ideas for DJGPP.
In-Reply-To:	<32A30670.3CA9@stud.warande.ruu.nl>
Message-ID:	<Pine.SUN.3.91.961203082339.3181E-100000@is>
MIME-Version:	1.0

On Mon, 2 Dec 1996, Elliott Oti wrote:

> > You mean, those of them who don't want to know anything about the
> > compiler are confused when they need to actually learn how it should
> > be called? ;-)
> 
> With all respect for you guys, it's easy to to forget how confusing learning
> C can be. If you cut your teeth on C64 assembler as a kid and moved on to
> Turbo Pascal as a teenager, learning C is a breeze. It's also easy to learn
> it as a CS major, with lots of feedback from friends and costudents, and
> access to the right books,

That's not how I learned C.

> but picture this: 
> 
> you're an earnest kid, you wanna learn C, you haven't the faintest
> idea of what the difference is between a compiler,linker,or preprocessor,
> you have only the foggiest idea of what the difference is between a header
> file and a C file, and your buddies don't even know (and don't care) what

That's exactly the way I did it.  How?  I've just Read the Fine Manuals.  
Yes, it does take more than 5 minutes to learn, but I don't have any 
sympathy for those who can't invest more than that in a subject that they 
are supposed to be professional about.

> undefined function","cannot run 16-bit program" etc. Would you blame
> him/her for preferring Turbo C which lets you get on with learning the
> language without all that extra crap?

What I'm blaming is their colossal impatience.  That is the sin these
people get their punishment for: to be forever stuck with tools which 
pretend to be omnipotent, but are really weak in every single aspect (in 
particular, they are all much less powerful as programmer's editors than 
any decent editor out there).

- Raw text -