Philipp Meier meier@meisterbohne.de writes:
I remember back in 1969 in my Introduction to Computer Programming
course (or whatever it was called), some of the first things we learned
had to do with fixed point and floating point arithmetic. We spent a
good month or so on these and other basic concepts before we were given
our first program to write.Do they even teach these basics any more?
I’m not trying to disparage anyone here; if something hasn’t been
taught, then no one can be expected to have learned it.But it’s disturbing to me to see the number of people who are posting in
this and other newsgroups in recent years who haven’t been exposed to
the concepts of fixed-point and floating-point arithmetic. This
indicates to me that there are many schools these days which don’t make
the effort to teach these basic concepts to their computer science
students. The fault is with these schools, and that’s sad.
I agree that it’s strange, but I don’t feel so strongly about it. Other
than programmers, most people I know haven’t thought about the
difference between an integer and a decimal value since they were in 5th
grade (around age 10). I tend to approach programming like I’m
explaining a task to a 5th grader, speaking carefully and assuming that
I have to step through all but the most fundamental stuff. Of course,
your average 10 year old child is still smarter than a computer most of
the time.
Another note: I’m one of the self-taught folks. I only know about how
the computer treats integers and floats from my own awkward efforts with
C/C++.
-Brian W
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Brian Wisti (brian at coolnamehere dot com)
http://coolnamehere.com/