A New Bible For Programmers

[wessman]

A New Bible For Programmers?
from the squinty-little-eyes dept.
posted by timothy on Wednesday June 18, @08:56 (books)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/18/127214

[0]KZigurs writes "The wonders of online publishing... If you are ready to take on a heroic task and read thru all 976 pages of [1]Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming (draft) (pdf file, 3MB, [2]intro here) written by [3]Peter Van Roy and [4]Seif Haridi you won't regret it. Just finished reading it and I feel like I have read the Bible. And who knows? It has the potential, and since current de facto books about programming are aging with increasing speed it very well may become one. (Please read the [2]intro to get more detailed outlook at topics covered) Anyone before heard about [5]Oz?"

Links:
0. http://reallife.lv
1. http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/people/PVR/book.pdf
2. http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/people/PVR/book.html
3. http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/
4. http://www.it.kth.se/~seif/
5. http://www.mozart-oz.org/

[isus]

976 pages of pdf?

i'll pass. lol. too much to read on the comp, too much to print.

[random nut]

Originally posted by isus
976 pages of pdf?

i'll pass. lol. too much to read on the comp, too much to print.

I can tell you'll never become a programmer.

[isus]

Originally posted by random nut
I can tell you'll never become a programmer.

lol... too late. i already made some simple programs in vb, i need to learn c and auto-incremented c (c++). my dream is to learn asm. lol.

i just don't feel like printing 976 pages on my already-low-on-ink printer or reading for the next 5 weeks on my computer.

altho, 976 pages... would probably take me more than 5 weeks with my current schedule.

[random nut]

I don't know why you want to learn asm. You won't find many jobs where it's a good thing to know asm. Unless of course you want to be "cool" and crack programs for some group. Only proramming in VB would be more boring than cracking programs. There's no challenge in it.

[12345678910]

Who programs in VB?

I'm working on C++ with the help of http://cprogramming.com and there wonderful tutorials.

How did you start random_nut?

Lata,
12345678910

[random nut]

C C++ asm in that order

And if someone wants to become a programmer for a living they'd better learn a real programming language, like C++, not VB. No-one's going to take you serious if all you know is VB. I still don't understand why people start in VB and not C++. Is it because some people have problems with C/C++ pointers?

[12345678910]

Originally posted by random nut
C C++ asm in that order

And if someone wants to become a programmer for a living they'd better learn a real programming language, like C++, not VB. No-one's going to take you serious if all you know is VB. I still don't understand why people start in VB and not C++. Is it because some people have problems with C/C++ pointers?

I've heard that excuse before. But, I can't tell you because I am just diving into the pointers myself. I start tonight actually.

I've been through :

The Basics
- variables
- int main()

If Statements
- if
- if else
- else
- boolean operators

Loops
- for
- do while

Functions
- break down code to be manageable

Switch Case
- long if statements

I have a while to go, and I am takinig it slow. Every night I reread everything that I have read before along with a new topic. I can do console based DOS programs and hopefully move onto Windows programming after I finish off the basics.

Lata,
12345678910

[isus]

i program in vb because it was the first bit of warez goodness i ever downloaded. lol. thats about it. plus, the college i can go to for dual-enrollment (aka high school + college) uses it as a prerequisite. supposedly, if you learn vb, it's easier to understand how a program is thought out.

[crackerjacker]

C C++ asm in that order

And if someone wants to become a programmer for a living they'd better learn a real programming language, like C++, not VB. No-one's going to take you serious if all you know is VB. I still don't understand why people start in VB and not C++. Is it because some people have problems with C/C++ pointers?


------
give me some pointers haha
but really vb is not a bad language to learn.
of course when i learned programming *cough* learned back in the days i was taught c ++
and now
i learn d - *just ask homeya* hi buddy boy
:)
but c is a very secure language and well u know the rest.
got some pointers?
hehe

[chipperrox]

i hear that people use what are they called
flow charts? to make programs?
im lost here

[random nut]

Originally posted by crackerjacker
but c is a very secure language and well u know the rest.
got some pointers?
hehe

Yea, C is very secure language, LOL.

Here's a pointer for ya, long *l=(long*)0xBADBEEF;

EDIT: Or maybe long *l=(long*)0xBADBABE;

[12345678910]

Originally posted by random nut
Yea, C is very secure language, LOL.

Here's a pointer for ya, long *l=(long*)0xBADBEEF;

EDIT: Or maybe long *l=(long*)0xBADBABE;

Do you have any more in depth links to pointers that you know are good?

I just browsed over the tutorial I have and it explains it well. I just get the feeling that there is lots more to pointers than what I just read. It seems as if they give functions the ability to access and modify variables through memory addressing.

I also understand the basics of the new and delete keywords.

Thanks,
12345678910

[random nut]

Pointers are nothing special. All they do is allow you to write to the same variable using another variable. Why would this be useful? It's useful because you can pass variables to a function and have it modify the variables.

Short pointer lesson:

void foo(int a)
{
a = 2;
}

void bar(int *a)
{
*a = 2;
}

int main(void)
{
int j = 5;
// j == 5
foo(j); // This passes the value of variable j to foo()
// j == 5
bar(&j); // This passes the address of variable j to bar()
// j == 2
}

foo() gets the value of the variable (in the above case, it's the value of variable j). So when it's called it will get a temporary, local, variable a it can use to read the value. If it modifies it, it only modifies its own local copy, not main()'s j variable.

bar() gets the address of the variable. Therefore, since it has the address of where the variable j is stored in memory, it can also modifiy the variable.