Hello,

I am thinking about teaching my students JavaScript first so that they can start creating websites and make their career, what are your thoughts?

  • raicon@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I would say C first. You need to learn the fundamentals:

    • pointers
    • allocation
    • reference vs value
    • recursion
    • stack
    • panics, errors, error propagation
    • data structures

    Many devs don’t know it and they are honestly just clueless about anything they are doing. They just want to make it work.

    JavaScript is just too high level, and makes you think you are immune to these low level concepts, but you are not.

    And not only that, but also good practices, like:

    • git
    • linting
    • types of tests and how to implement them
    • working with third party dependencies
    • mimavox@piefed.social
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      4 days ago

      I wouldn’t say that pointers and memory allocation is a good thing to start with. I teach programming to students with no prior experience, and sometimes it’s hard to even get them to grasp basic programming in Python. At least in the beginning. You have to start slow.

    • Flamekebab@piefed.social
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      4 days ago

      I’ve been working as a software engineer for years and not once have those “fundamentals” been relevant to the work I do.

      If I question their usefulness then I don’t think it’ll sit well with no experience at all.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        If you’ve been working as a software engineer for years and things like error handling and data structures (let alone git and testing!) are not relevant to you, I fear for your employer’s codebase.

        • Flamekebab@piefed.social
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          4 days ago

          Hah! You picked the two of your that list that I actually do care about.

          • pointers * allocation * reference vs value * recursion * stack * panics, errors, error propagation * data structures

          I don’t know what pointers are. I don’t care about memory allocation. Recursion rarely comes up.
          That’s not the kind of codebase I work with. I guess I’m not a proper big-boy programmer 😢

          Anyway, your snide remarks about my abilities aside, that doesn’t address my point at all.

          • grue@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            First of all, it’s not my list. Check the usernames of the comments you’re replying to.

            Second, you didn’t make any sort of distinction limiting which ones you were talking about before, which means that you expressed that none of them were relevant. You don’t get to move the goalposts and then pretend it doesn’t address your point because of that.

            Third, that sloppiness and failure to pay attention is only reinforcing my initial impression.

            • Flamekebab@piefed.social
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              4 days ago

              Calling me out on a clarification when you’re banging on with ad hominem rubbish?

              Respond to the point or bugger off. I’m not here to impress you, you’re not my dad.

              Third, that sloppiness and failure to pay attention is only reinforcing my initial impression.

              A good engineer knows when the details matter and when it’s just wasting everyone’s time. Would you classify responding to someone being needlessly hostile as something other than a waste of time?

              If anything you should be criticising me for choosing to spaff more time on this conversation.

              • grue@lemmy.world
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                4 days ago

                You weren’t “clarifying;” you were backtracking and lying about it. That’s a detail that matters.

                  • grue@lemmy.world
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                    4 days ago

                    I did respond to the point, in my initial comment. Your lack of reading comprehension (and dishonesty!) is your own problem, not mine.