Title: Code In Context

Life has become extraordinarily busy for me during the last couple of months. I started to right an article on the way that code relates to the context in which it is written. Ths was in response to a comment that Francis made that one of the things that cause difficulties in learning to program is that you experience code that is designed to help you to learn a computer language. Rather the way that the old 'Peter and Jane' books were designed to help a young child learn to read.

That is fine until you change the context. Learning the simple process of reading using 'Peter and Jane' books when you are five, six or seven can be quite enjoyable because the simple contents match the level of the child.

If you are an adult, perhaps one that speaks some other language, P&J books are boring and inappropriate. But there is a shortage of books written in simple language for adults.

The same seems to apply to books on programming. What I would like you to do is to send in examples (send them to Francis) of code that might be written differently if it is aimed at learning C or C++ as compared with the way that it might be written if you were going to use it in a product.