A critic of Guido's blog on Python's lambda

[Alex Martelli]

Chris Lambacher <chris at kateandchris.net> wrote:

> On Sun, May 07, 2006 at 11:57:55AM -0700, Alex Martelli wrote:
> > > [1] I'm considering introducing bugs or misdesigns that have to be
> > > fixed
> > >     as part of training for the purposes of this discussion. Also the
> > 
> > Actually, doing it _deliberately_ (on "training projects" for new people
> > just coming onboard) might be a good training technique; what you learn
> > by finding and fixing bugs nicely complements what you learn by studying
> > "good" example code.  I do not know of this technique being widely used
> > in real-life training, either by firms or universities, but I'd love to
> > learn about counterexamples.
> 
> When I was learning C in university my professor made us fix broken programs.
> He did this specifically to teach us to understand how to read compiler
> warnings/errors and also how to debug software.  The advantage of this in the
> tutorial setting was that the TAs knew what the error was and could assist the
> people in finding bugs in a controlled environment.  When I later worked with
> people who did not go through this training I found many of them had no clue
> how to decipher the often cryptic C/C++ compiler warnings/errors (think
> Borland Turbo C or MS Visual C++, GCC is pretty good in comparison) or where
> to start looking for a bug (an affliction I do not possess).

Great to hear that SOME teachers use this technique.  I think it would
be about just as valuable with any language (or other similar piece of
technology).


Alex