[plug] Starting in Windows not Unix

[Leon Brooks]

Christian wrote:
> Leon Brooks wrote:
>> starting them on Windows is a bad idea because you spend a
>> significant amount of time just dealing with Windows and incidentally
>> picking up bad habits, especially the assumption that your program owns
>> the machine.

> Firstly they're going to have to deal with Windows sometime

Really? (-:

> and most have been dealing with Windows at home for years.

So in other words, they are exploring only known territory. How
educational is this? I follow Abraham Licoln's idea that "if you know
what you're doing, you're not learning anything."

> Secondly, and more
> importantly from a teaching perspective, the assumption that the program
> owns the machine is actually quite a useful one.  Having the
> power/freedom to do anything on the machine at a low level allows the
> student to learn more than they would be able to otherwise

No, it doesn't. With the Unix machine you have the option of su if you
want to be reckless. Recklessness is built in to the winDOS machine.
It's the only option; in other words, it _reduces_ your choices.

Also, if you stuff up in a protected environment (read: not winDOS), you
get a nice error message and a core-file to examine, rather than a
locked machine, few clues, and possibly a trashed disk.

In the case of Linux and (Free|Open|Net)BSD, you also have the advantage
of being able to personally inspect the code that does the things you're
learning about, often together with informed comments about why it was
done that way. Since the source is to hand, you can modify existing
*working* code to see what effect it has.

> -- that's why
> 95 was used on the lab machines instead of NT.  The crashing is a pain
> but it's still worthwhile in terms of the exposure to internals that the
> system grants.

Generally granting them all over the screen... (-:

> Anyway, I think this thread has wandered a little
> off-topic... :)

No problem. I just changed the topic! Tally-ho...!

> If you can't beat your computer at chess, try kickboxing.

Smashing idea! (-: