Talk:Introduction to Programming/Variables

Too advanced?
If someone is truly new to programming, are they going to understand descriptions such as "a variable is ... a named location in memory"? Yes, this is a good description, but I'm not sure it will mean much to a complete newbie. I think that some of the simplicity of the content in the Introduction to Programming Logic/Lesson 1: Variables article should be combined into this one (and then deleted - that lesson is redundant). --James Tharpe 15:47, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Hmm. I'll look at this a little more closely. In this course I've been trying extra hard not to assume anything - because there should be a course that a complete neophyte can take (and this should be that course). I do want to make sure that people learn certain things though and the exact nature of a variable is fairly high on that list - I would rather that they have an exact understanding of its true nature right from the start so that it doesn't become a source of confusion or misunderstanding later. Dmclean 16:21, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I went through the text and made an effort to expand, simplify and better order the material. We could use a non-technical reader here to tell us how we are doing. Comments anyone? Dmclean 17:37, 31 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I'll get my girlfriend to read it :-). Good improvements, BTW. --James Tharpe 19:40, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I added some information to the Byte section to make it relevant to the "Variables" content. The technical information on data type size could be consolidated to the "Part 2" page... or should they be combined? neither is very long. Pnguyen 07:19, 9 February 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm leery about some of these changes. I definitely think that the Wikipedia article on data types is too advanced at this point. Dmclean 19:07, 9 February 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree; we need to keep it general, but accurate. How does it seem now?  the removed text was simply commented; I'll remove it if this seems like what we want for this article. Pnguyen 20:00, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

I've restored the section on data types
The section on byte-usage in data types was removed for reasons of "inaccuracy". I agree that the information is not _entirely_ accurate; however, keeping in mind that this is a resource for beginners, I don't think it necessary to try to explain exactly why this information is inaccurate (only CS majors really care anyway, and it's quite trivial in the modern era of of 64-bit, dual core processors and 100GB RAM). I do, however, think it worth while to explain the data types in some depth in this article, although I do worry that this article is a bit too specific and overly complicated. We have to keep in mind that this among the first lessons in Intro to CS. AmiDaniel (talk) 18:31, 1 March 2007 (UTC)