[OT] partialy I was wondering what suggestions for programing

[Leo J Mauler]

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 09:58:08 -0600 DCT Jared <jsmith at datacaptech.com>
writes:
> On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 04:01:25 -0800, Kendrick-LUG wrote:
> > I never saw a specific book on
> > fundamentals of programingl.
> 
> I can't imagine one exists. How can you teach 
> fundamentals of programming without examples? 

They exist.  What is taught is all the basic programming design skills
prior to bringing in the choice of a high-level language (for purposes of
this posting, even Assembler is technically a High Level Language).

For example, you can teach someone how to write a basic Loop function
without bringing in a programming language.  The words you use to "write
the function" will not be from any particular programming language, but
they may resemble one or more languages.

For example, a program to count from 1 to 100 and print out each number
and the n-squared value of each number, could look something like this in
a fundamentals of structured programming textbook:

-Start Program.
-Create a number variable called NUMBERS.
-Create a number variable called SQUARED.
-Set the value of NUMBERS to 0.
-Set the value of SQUARED to 1.
-[Start of Loop]
-Add one to NUMBERS.
-Display NUMBERS.
-Display the value of NUMBERS.
-Set the value of SQUARED to NUMBERS multiplied by NUMBERS.
-Display the value of NUMBERS times NUMBERS.
-If NUMBERS is less than 100, go back to [Start of Loop].
-Otherwise, end the Loop.
-End Program.

This is a perfectly good example of a Loop function with some Math
operators and a Conditional statement, without using a single language
specific example of C, Pascal, BASIC, Assembler, etc.  It also teaches
good programming techniques, such as remembering to Initialize all your
variables with dummy values which are still within the parameters of the
intended program.  Another good technique taught by learning programming
in this manner is to think about source code documentation in terms of
Plain English, rather than using language-specific terms.

Everyone out there who codes in any language can see that all the steps
can be implemented in whatever programming language you choose.  This is
important, as you may learn programming using ONLY the C programming
language, then be denied a job because you only know how to write code in
C, not in the language used by the prospective employer.  By getting the
essentials ingrained into your mind, you can write most of the design of
the source code out even if you haven't learned the new programming
language yet.

So when I talk about "books which teach programming without using a
specific programming language", this is the type of book I am talking
about.  You don't need to teach people any programming language to teach
them fundamentals of structured programming.

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