🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <90346.133157DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu>, <DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu> says:
>While the RKM is a nice (and essential) reference book, it's not designed
>to teach people how to program the Amiga, which is what the original poster
>was asking about.

I disagree.  The RKM are prefectly designed to teach a person how to
"program the Amiga."  And, correctly, they assume that the person is
already an expert programmer, where "expert" means equivalent to
at least a BS in computer science (with good grades, and from a tough
program).

Why should the RKM teach people how to program, or for that matter
why should they teach how window systems work, message passing, pointers
structs externs memory management etc etc etc????

As I recollect, it took me a good six months of hard work to teach myself
C in a plain vanilla text and command line environment.  That was in
1984.  Then, in about 88-90, it took me another year or two to come
up to speed as an Amiga programmer, using windows, gadgets, and graphics
in a competent (though still not really expert) way.  I am a pretty
smart guy with 25 years of amateur programming experience, not to
mention that I am a professional *teacher* of programming (a different,
but equally difficult skill 8-).  If it took me three years to learn
C and Amiga stuff, how long will it take you?  Less?  Maybe.

Let me drone on.  As a rule of thumb, it takes about 5000 hours to become
an "expert" at any worthwhile skill---juggling, tennis, the cello,
or even programming the Amiga.  Use the back of an envelope to figure
out how long it will take to acquire those 5000 hours in elapsed time.

lee
The RKM *is* sketchy; it assumes you bring a good deal of
>knowledge with you to begin with. And I agree that the choice of 'C' for
>examples is a bad one. (Unless you're a C wizard. Most people aren't).
>Unfortuntely, there aren't many (any?!) good books about programming the
>Amiga in general that I know of. (And I mean USEFUL books, not re-writes
>of the RKM!!!!!).

>-- Dan Babcock