The typical “computer language tutorial,” in contrast, is in my opinion a very shoddy document from a pedagogical standpoint, usually appearing totally clear to anyone familiar with the language but vague and ambiguous to its target audience.
Brent Yorgey’s “monad tutorial fallacy” points out a possible cause of this problem: the authors of tutorials mistake a summary of an insight as being the path to that insight.
learn new languages faster in context of languages you know
A related problem I’ve seen newer programmers struggle with is that even reasonably good tutorials are often written in the context of specific older, popular languages, typically C. And if they are written for C, they are not titled “Foo for C Programmers”; they are just titled “Foo Tutorial”. And they say things like, “Whenever you would use XYZ in C, you can use PDQ in Foo.” This is useless for learners who are not coming from C.
I’m put in mind of the Red Queen from Through the Looking Glass:
‘Do you know Languages? What’s the French for fiddle-de-dee? ″Fiddle-de-dee’s not English,’ Alice replied gravely. ‘Who ever said it was?’ said the Red Queen. Alice thought she saw a way out of the difficulty this time. ‘If you’ll tell me what language “fiddle-de-dee” is, I’ll tell you the French for it!’ she exclaimed triumphantly. But the Red Queen drew herself up rather stiffly, and said ‘Queens never make bargains. ″I wish Queens never asked questions,’ Alice thought to herself.
Brent Yorgey’s “monad tutorial fallacy” points out a possible cause of this problem: the authors of tutorials mistake a summary of an insight as being the path to that insight.
A related problem I’ve seen newer programmers struggle with is that even reasonably good tutorials are often written in the context of specific older, popular languages, typically C. And if they are written for C, they are not titled “Foo for C Programmers”; they are just titled “Foo Tutorial”. And they say things like, “Whenever you would use XYZ in C, you can use PDQ in Foo.” This is useless for learners who are not coming from C.
I’m put in mind of the Red Queen from Through the Looking Glass: