

WikiWikiWeb users try to teach "C++" - vezzy-fnord
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?CeeProgramsForBeginnersDiscussion

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vezzy-fnord
I stumbled upon this incidentally while casually browsing the WikiWikiWeb.

From what I can salvage, it is the discussion page to an article called
CeeProgramsForBeginners, a very poorly written page ostensibly meant as an
intro to C, but that instead ends up using plenty of DOS-isms, arbitrarily
mixes C and C++ syntax, and pollutes the namespace.

The discussion page is then a huge mess where a group of people try to teach a
beginner by the alias of SusannahWilliams the language, and walk her through
examples. While trying to learn C++ (and from one of those poor “X in 24
Hours” books, no less), she keeps getting fed more DOS-isms, erroneous
constructs like “void main()” that are never to be used outside of niche
embedded environments, all while a tide of people rant, rave, debate language
semantics and drift off-topic in the background. Later, they switch to poor
C++ syntax and do things like forget to add semicolons after procedure calls,
but at that point, the article had already devolved into mayhem.

One of the participants, ElizabethWiethoff, slaps a deletion candidate
disclaimer by the end of the ordeal, and like that the article has not been
touched since August 19, 2005.

I found it quite humorous, as it illustrates not only the chaos of using a
wiki as a bazaar-based education model, but also how the programmers can’t
seem to agree with each other and hold arcane (to the pupil) technical debates
in the background. Stereotypical programmer behavior.

