Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Loki

[Michael <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

> I disagree with you there, at least in my case. The best way to learn how
> to program is to program. For instance, I helped write a completely
> non-OOP game called Fathia. Doing this helped me understand the utlitity
> of OOP. Then I wrote Mandala (http://mlug.missouri.edu/~eean/mandala) in
> increasing amounts of OOP (converting global functions and variables to
> classes). Granted this has caused some frustration, but the major reason
> I set out to make Mandala was to learn programming anway.

I don't really mean not to program while learning but it's better to write
simple programs while learning than to write something huge and be stuck
with your design decisions and fixed in your ways so to speak. I see a lot
of programmers who kind of used canned processes to write their programs
without ever understanding how or why they work so if something breaks
they can't fix it and they don't really know how to make good design
decisions. People who keep reinventing the wheel and only getting flat
tires.

> I suppose I had already read about OOP theory, but I hadn't really
> learned it yet. Reading about programming has its place, but its
> ultimately not the best way to learn or remember anything.

To disregard my own advice I learned OOP coding before I read anything
about it but I absorbed it so fast that I really didn't need a book. To be
honest I don't think the majority of people can do that. In teaching
others OOP and other concepts I've found they were almost always unable to
grasp them until you carefully explained everything and then forced them
through appropiate examples and repeat several times. OOP is such a simple
concept IMO that I find it hard to believe people have such a hard time
grasping it but obviously they do. Really anyone who has lived a day in
real life should grasp that some things are naturally easily represented
as objects.. tv's, rabbits, cheese, and pretty much anything else that
could be thought of as an object which includes most everything. :)

> I'm that way in math as well. The teachers lectures on why things are
> the way they are(particurally this years) really do not help me very
> much. Looking at the examples and doing problems myself do. Then I may
> learn the "why". Kind of backwards. I suppose everyone has their own
> way of doing it.

For me doing the math problems never told me anything. I'm unable to take
what they say and translate it to their examples unless they explain why
the process they tell me to follow works. If they explain why and how it
works then I'll grasp it and be able to make large mental leaps. I'm
horrible at math but I can do mental tricks that drive my math teachers
nuts. Give me a math problem and I'm lost. Give me a word problem of
insane complexity and I'll often solve it in my head and then step back
through my own mind to figure out what steps I took to accomplish the
task. So I flunk all my math classes but excel in electronics, computers,
etc. IMO most math teachers are horrible. They don't understand what they
are doing and if asked they can't even tell you. Pisses the shit out of
me. :P

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