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Re: Understandability

From David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no>
Newsgroups comp.lang.c
Subject Re: Understandability
Date 2015-05-04 09:26 +0200
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <mi76th$kmq$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References <f088f6c5-01bd-44ca-b51a-04e71d1bd169@googlegroups.com> <mi25se$9sl$1@dont-email.me> <c4cbd63a-8ae0-4e44-ba95-db8304d45824@googlegroups.com>

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On 02/05/15 18:15, David Kleinecke wrote:

> The reason I did what I did seems to have gone right by most commentators
> but you get my point.

Perhaps that's because you didn't /say/ why you were doing this?  As far
as your first post in this thread is concerned, you simply moaned about
tutorials you found for gcc don't say what gcc actually /is/.  Of
course, this is hardly surprising - if I were to search for articles
about "how to drive a car", I think most hits would assume that I know
what a "car" is.

You followed this up with a rant about the wikipedia page on gcc, which
mostly boils down to a complaint that it merely describes it as a
"compiler system", and you have to click on the word "compiler" to find
out what that is.

> 
> I was addressing the question of how to describe a computer program. So
> I took one well-known and much-written-about program, gcc, as an example. 
> Actually I am not at all sure any of the examples I found were attempts
> to describe gcc - it is often difficult to tell what things are intended
> for but I would assume something that answers to "tutorial" is aimed at
> people who don't know much about a subject and want to learn more. That is
> as close to a description as I could get.
> 
> I assume the best way to describe something is a tree. Very broadbrush at
> the top with more and more specific stuff further down (my tree is a
> computer tree - upside down). In the case of a computer program he actual
> code would be at the bottom.
> 

If you want to learn how to describe a computer program, start with
something simple - start with a "hello, world!" program and work up from
there.  Picking such complex monstrosities (let's be honest - gcc is a
fantastic piece of work, but it is not easy to understand in its
entirety) as gcc and emacs is a bit like learning to write biographies
by starting with Hamlet or Jesus.

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Thread

Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-01 17:55 -0700
  Re: Understandability Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-05-01 19:41 -0700
  Re: Understandability wssimms@gmail.com - 2015-05-01 20:45 -0700
  Re: Understandability Bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-05-02 10:38 +0100
    Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-02 09:15 -0700
      Re: Understandability David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-05-04 09:26 +0200
        Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-04 12:52 -0700
  Re: Understandability Noob <root@127.0.0.1> - 2015-05-02 14:21 +0200
    Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-02 09:13 -0700
      Re: Understandability Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-05-03 08:07 +1200
      Re: Understandability Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-05-02 13:11 -0700
        Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-03 10:50 -0700
          Re: Understandability Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2015-05-03 13:26 -0700
            Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-04 12:29 -0700
              Re: Understandability Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2015-05-05 05:47 -0700
        Re: Understandability raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-05-08 21:10 +0000
          Re: Understandability Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-05-09 09:17 +1200
          Re: Understandability Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-05-08 14:32 -0700
            Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-09 09:13 -0700
              Re: Understandability Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-05-09 16:48 -0700
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-10 11:05 -0700
                Re: Understandability David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-05-11 08:48 +0200
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-11 09:55 -0700
                Re: Understandability James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-05-11 17:52 -0400
                Re: Understandability glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2015-05-11 22:54 +0000
                Re: Understandability David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-05-12 08:49 +0200
                Re: Understandability Morris Dovey <mrdovey@iedu.com> - 2015-05-12 02:15 -0500
                Re: Understandability Phil Carmody <pc+usenet@asdf.org> - 2015-05-25 03:15 +0300
                Re: Understandability James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-05-25 00:45 -0400
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-25 10:26 -0700
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-11 10:06 -0700
                Re: Understandability David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-05-12 08:59 +0200
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-12 08:37 -0700
                Re: Understandability David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-05-13 08:53 +0200
                Re: Understandability Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-05-13 08:16 -0700
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-13 09:49 -0700
                Re: Understandability Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-05-13 10:53 -0700
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-14 10:35 -0700
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-13 09:31 -0700
                Re: Understandability James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-05-13 13:10 -0400
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-14 10:27 -0700
                Re: Understandability James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-05-14 22:51 -0400
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-15 10:02 -0700
                Re: Understandability James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-05-15 13:37 -0400
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-16 09:18 -0700
                Re: Understandability David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-05-16 23:56 +0200
                Re: Understandability gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2015-05-17 12:45 +0000
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-17 09:16 -0700
                Re: Understandability James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-05-17 12:47 -0400
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-18 10:54 -0700
                Re: Understandability James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-05-18 15:00 -0400
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-19 09:49 -0700
                Re: Understandability James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-05-19 13:10 -0400
                Re: Understandability James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-05-16 19:01 -0400
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-17 09:30 -0700
                Re: Understandability James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-05-17 12:58 -0400
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-18 10:54 -0700
                Re: Understandability James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-05-18 14:56 -0400
                Re: Understandability David Kleinecke <dkleinecke@gmail.com> - 2015-05-19 09:46 -0700
                Re: Understandability James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-05-19 13:16 -0400
                Re: Understandability Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2015-05-19 18:23 +0100
                Re: Understandability James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-05-19 14:02 -0400
                Re: Understandability David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-05-19 00:11 +0200
                Re: Understandability James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-05-18 18:28 -0400
                Re: Understandability Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-05-15 10:52 -0700
                Re: Understandability David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-05-13 21:53 +0200
          Re: Understandability David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-05-09 16:18 +0200
          Re: Understandability Noob <root@127.0.0.1> - 2015-05-09 18:31 +0200
            Re: Understandability raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-05-17 10:44 +0000
              Re: Understandability glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2015-05-17 15:53 +0000
      Re: Understandability David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-05-04 09:15 +0200
        Re: Understandability Waldek Hebisch <hebisch@math.uni.wroc.pl> - 2015-05-16 00:28 +0000
  Re: Understandability Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2015-05-03 10:58 -0700

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