>>>>> "RK" == Robin Kenyon <robin_ken...@fastmail.co.uk> writes:
RK> I would say, as a beginner: RK> Programming is easy because it's all about telling the computer what you RK> want it to do (though you might think you've told it what you want it to RK> do, it may do something else based on what you've actually told it to RK> do). Two computers are generally not going to do something different RK> based on the same command in the similar environment. It is easy RK> because you know you can do anything. the best answer i have is that anyone can do some level of programming. giving directions or how to make a recipe are common examples in everyday life. basic logical decisions and tracking them is innate in humans. RK> Programming is hard because it's abstract, it's difficult to explain, RK> many places/people explain it poorly, and everyone needs it explained RK> differently. Programming generally takes a lot of time to get something RK> half decent, then it's not so bad. Problem solving doesn't always come RK> naturally, though can be nurtured. And as stated above, you might thing RK> you've told the computer to do something, but you may not have RK> understood what you actually asked it to do. my answer (and for both newbie and experienced) is the single word scaling. and that answer has two dimensions. scaling from a toy program to a larger one is difficult. a db could be a simple CSV file. scaling that to a large rdbms is not trivial. this is true of a single developer scaling to a large team as well. the other dimension of scale is breadth of knowledge. there is so much you can learn in the computer world that we all must specialize to some degree or another. which means we need others to do work for us as we can't do it all. i have my coding strengths and weaknesses (graphics, security are two major ones) as do all of us. no one can scale their knowledge to the size of the computer field out there. RK> Once one is more experienced: RK> Programming is easy because you know what you are doing most of the RK> time. Poorly documented libraries/modules/etc. you can figure out based RK> on previous knowledge. You understand the foundation of programming and RK> you understand the language you are using. RK> Programming is hard because the more you do, the higher you set your RK> sights. You look to bigger and better challenges and you realise just RK> how vast computing and programming is. the vast comment is close to what to my answer. uri -- Uri Guttman ------ u...@stemsystems.com -------- http://www.sysarch.com -- ----- Perl Code Review , Architecture, Development, Training, Support ------ --------- Gourmet Hot Cocoa Mix ---- http://bestfriendscocoa.com --------- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: beginners-unsubscr...@perl.org For additional commands, e-mail: beginners-h...@perl.org http://learn.perl.org/
