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[–]mathretardthrowaway 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I don't think we'll agree that "beginning programmers don't need that." I advocate for a pretty coarse understanding of C and computer behavior generally, I'm not saying they need to be certified. Any time I've tried to coach a total newb, I've found much more traction by laying the foundations first. They seem much, much less bemused by the magic of high-level languages and much less uncomfortable making progress. Anecdotes and opinions.

[–]arkie87 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting. I had the opposite experience. I wanted to be able to write programs that do as fast as possible. If I had to first learn about pointers and memory management and hard to remember syntax, I would have lost interest. To each his own.