http://imprompt.us/2007/foo/ Computer Science and Teaching and Other Ancillary Things Sun, 01 Aug 2010 09:52:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://imprompt.us/2007/foo/comment-page-1/#comment-16706 JMC Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:42:56 +0000 http://imprompt.us/2007/foo/#comment-16706 Why would the usage of a dummy word like foo or bar turn people away from programming?? Chances are, they weren't going to dig it anyway. Why would the usage of a dummy word like foo or bar turn people away from programming?? Chances are, they weren't going to dig it anyway.

]]> http://imprompt.us/2007/foo/comment-page-1/#comment-1090 Peter Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:46:37 +0000 http://imprompt.us/2007/foo/#comment-1090 JMC, your comment that people who are turned off by FOO wouldn't like programming anyway presupposes that people are either "programmers" or "not programmers". If we move away from that view into a more realistic vision where people have differing aptitudes for the subject, then it makes a lot of sense to put as few stupid hurdles up as possible. Because in that case, every extra hurdle decreases by a small amount the number of people who will understand the subject. JMC, your comment that people who are turned off by FOO wouldn’t like programming anyway presupposes that people are either “programmers” or “not programmers”. If we move away from that view into a more realistic vision where people have differing aptitudes for the subject, then it makes a lot of sense to put as few stupid hurdles up as possible. Because in that case, every extra hurdle decreases by a small amount the number of people who will understand the subject.

]]> http://imprompt.us/2007/foo/comment-page-1/#comment-1088 http://jes5199.com/ Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:06:40 +0000 http://imprompt.us/2007/foo/#comment-1088 When I was in college2, I was in the middle of explain the concept of widgets (i.e. GUI libs) to a friend, and I happened to use "monkey" as my placeholder. My then-roommate overheard and euphemismed loudly "monkeys with widgets!? What the hell are you talking about??" and, for him, this forever poisoned the word "monkey" -- such that whenever I was talking about /anything/ and monkeys happened to wander in, he would start raving about widgets (which was, to him, even more meaningless than monkeys are to me) When I was in college2, I was in the middle of explain the concept of widgets (i.e. GUI libs) to a friend, and I happened to use “monkey” as my placeholder. My then-roommate overheard and euphemismed loudly “monkeys with widgets!? What the hell are you talking about??” and, for him, this forever poisoned the word “monkey” — such that whenever I was talking about /anything/ and monkeys happened to wander in, he would start raving about widgets (which was, to him, even more meaningless than monkeys are to me)

]]> http://imprompt.us/2007/foo/comment-page-1/#comment-1087 JMC Tue, 14 Aug 2007 13:53:55 +0000 http://imprompt.us/2007/foo/#comment-1087 Why would the usage of a dummy word like foo or bar turn people away from programming?? Chances are, they weren't going to dig it anyway. Why would the usage of a dummy word like foo or bar turn people away from programming?? Chances are, they weren’t going to dig it anyway.

]]> http://imprompt.us/2007/foo/comment-page-1/#comment-1086 zeke Tue, 14 Aug 2007 03:44:36 +0000 http://imprompt.us/2007/foo/#comment-1086 I don't use Foo nor Bar. I prefer crap, shit, dung, poop, choad, and monkey as my scratch variables. I don’t use Foo nor Bar. I prefer crap, shit, dung, poop, choad, and monkey as my scratch variables.

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