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Discussion on: What is the worst advice for the newbie?

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simonhaisz profile image
simonhaisz

The issue is not that "learning about how memory works" is bad advice. The issue is the manner in which you are supposed to learn.

Does learning about pointers, malloc, and free teach you about memory management?
Sure.

Is what you learned immediately transferable to a GC type language?
No, the rules are different and you have to learn some new things.

If you had no desire to learn C at the moment, could you just learn how memory works within what you are using?
Yes.

Will that be easier and quicker than having (and this is the key bad thing about the advice, that you have to learn C first or you won't know what you are doing and will be a bad programmer) to learn C first?
Yes.

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axelledrouge profile image
AxelleDRouge

ok yes I understand your point.
A good advice would be to have a good understanding about the basics, including memory.
But does that mean that you must learn C ? No, indeed.
I guess when you start programming (in general) without knowing which language to use first, C could be considered a good one. But well I started with Java and many started with Python... so the point is more about the concepts and basics than the language itself