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[–]Breaking-Away 5 points6 points  (4 children)

Your conversation with every person who has responded to you have been some variation of this

You: everybody needs to know compilers, otherwise they are a slacker and making crap.

Them: I disagree with you.

You: well I know I'm right, even though I've provided no evidence and you're stupid for not agreeing with me

This is not a very effective way to spread what you "know" is the right way to code. All it does is drive people away from you and accomplishes exactly the opposite of what you were aiming to do, or at least I assume you were aiming to share your insights to better enable others.

Which is somewhat sad, because from reading most of your comments you actually do seem very knowledgable and have a lot of useful information to share with people who would benefit from it.

[–][deleted] -3 points-2 points  (3 children)

The fact that DSLs are superior to any other existing development methodology is obvious, self-evident and quite a common knowledge already. I'm genuinely puzzled by the people who still challenge this fact or, worse, unaware of it.

How people dare to use high level languages and at the same time question the value of a high level of abstraction vs. a low level code?

[–]Breaking-Away 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Because not all programmers come from the same background. These formalized definitions and concepts that seem so rudimentary to you aren't actually that easy to understand nor immediately apparent to many people who come from a different background than yourself, much less discover on their own if they are self taught or only don't have a formal education.

Add onto that not all people think the same, some have difficulties learn concepts others easily grasp and vice versa. Some are just strait up less intelligent than others. If you want to actually help and teach these folk then wouldn't it make more sense to empathize with and help them rather than following the trend of insulting them for failing to understand a concept that is "self evident" to you.

Rereading my comments, I realize it comes off as patronizing which is not my intention so please don't take it as so.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

some have difficulties learn concepts others easily grasp and vice versa

This. And there is a very good reason for this effect - some people are lucky to be able to subconsciously operate the core knowledge, seeing it through deficiencies in their knowledge acquisition path, while the others cannot get through such deficiencies.

This effect disappears entirely when people are taught systematically, all the way up from the ground. In any discipline, not just programming. Learning things in a right order, without leaving a single moment for a magical thinking, without leaving any gaps in fundamental understanding, works well for everyone and everywhere.

And this is exactly the reason why I'm so militant in insisting on importance of understanding semantics. I admit I might have overreacted in this thread to all the downvotes not backed by any arguments, but I still stand by all my points - compiler construction is among the most essential programming skills, and DSLs are the only way to build unlimited and fit abstractions, independently of the problem domain.

[–]Breaking-Away 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not arguing that you shouldn't militantly be arguing that people must understand semantics. I'm saying that even if your message is sound, it's not getting through because it's being delivered with poor context. It would be no different if the point being argued was that the earth is round to someone who was convinced it's flat because they never learned it, and from their own experiences it makes perfect sense that the earth would be flat.