This article does a great job at pointing out just how needlessly difficult computer science makes itself when it doesn't have to. Example:
!(a || b) == (!a && !b)
`a` and `b`. They're meant to represent, well
anything really but to the average person (or weirdos like me) it would be infinitely easier to understand if the author wrote it like this:
!(Bob || Sally) == (!Bob && !Sally)
I don't know why but whenever I encounter single-characters-as-math-variables in computer science I have to spend
far more time unpacking such statements into things my brain can understand. It is
so much easier if such statements are written as
nouns that describe actual
things.
I remember having a hard time working with C for loops until a friend of mine wrote one like this:
for (int number = 0; number < 10; number = number + 1)
Suddenly it all made sense! I am not alone in this! I have taught programming to kids and others who have struggled to learn programming and this seems to be how
normal people think.
Note: We, as a geeky community are not normal. I just have a strange exception in that at least one little part of me thinks like a normal person and that is with "what we name things" :)
I remember having a hard time working with C for loops until a friend of mine wrote one like this:
Suddenly it all made sense! I am not alone in this! I have taught programming to kids and others who have struggled to learn programming and this seems to be how normal people think.Note: We, as a geeky community are not normal. I just have a strange exception in that at least one little part of me thinks like a normal person and that is with "what we name things" :)