On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 6:53 AM, Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale / gmail.com> wrote:
> And while learning Latin, might help some learn French up to a point,
> I'd argue that knowledge of one language can also interfere REALLY
> learning another, related or not, if one can't accept that the second
>
> There's a long history of English grammarians clinging to the myth
> that English grammar must follow Latin grammar, leading to bogus rules
> like the injunction against splitting an infinitive, which is common
> in English usage, but impossible in Latin since the infinitive is a

To the first point, I'd actually argue that learning the second
foreign language, or a second programing language teaches you more
about the first than you'd even imagine.  Maybe it's a mindset, or
maybe it's what languages you're working with, I'm not sure.

Contrary to what I advised, I learned BASIC first.  I was OK in it,
then I learned C++ in school (It took quite awhile for me to be able
to write straight C after that).  Learning in that order I've often
felt was not good for me.

But after learning C++, I was so much better in BASIC than I was
before, that I ended up tutoring/teaching it to business students
(this was way back in the day).  The only way I could do that was
because learning that second language taught me so much more about
programming.

Although perhaps that makes an argument for learning BASIC (really
really basic, not this VB/business basic junk) or shell script first,
_then_ delving into C, then an abstract language.

There really are so many ways to think of it. Humm.

I still believe that people should learn C though, before embarking on
programming projects, much less careers, even if they don't use C for
it.


As for English and it's horrific grammar, it's a Germanic language
that was busy absorbing Latin, Franco and the occasional Greek words
for 10 centuries.  I've heard, but can't find references anywhere
right now, that the grammar itself was latinized shortly after the
advent of cheap printing.  Apparently there was an underlying motive
to make it more difficult, since that would make it easier to
distinguish between the educated and the non educated.  Evil isn't it?
 Just wish I could find a reference.....


--Kyle