mike@whitewing.co.uk  wrote:
>
>><PONTIFICATION>
>>But that stuff about data structures/etc you mention is just
>>details. The "real" meat is the structured, top-down, stuff.
>>Learn that, so the theory goes, and you got time for a
>>capuccino in the afternoon. The rest is gravy.
>></PONTIFICATION>
>
>..... and of course small microcontrollers are one time where
>'bottom-up' can _sometimes_ be the most appropriate approach,
>especially when you need to squeeze every last drop of preformance out
>of a chip. There are times when you just need to write some small but
>critical part of the code to see if something can be done at all, and
>then figure out how you can fit the rest of the application around it.
>

Where I went to school, any student using the term 'bottom-up' got
an automatic 'F' in CS100.

But, if you want to get serious here [shoot, I thought everyone was
just joking around], I *ALWAYS* code top-down/bottom-up/top-down/etc,
iteratively. Write module/test module/integrate module. That's what
my post-education experience taught me. That, and life.
===============

>><THE UNKNOWN UNIVERSE>
>>I've often wondered whether CS perfessors ever actually write
>>any code themselves, or just think about writing code. If I
>>knew the answer to this, I might understand the educational
>>system better.
>></THE UNKNOWN UNIVERSE>
>
>No college course is ever going to teach you how to squeeze that last
>byte out of a routine so it fits a smaller chip.... or use spare
>hardware register bits when you run out of RAM... or arrange i/o pins
>so you can RLF serial data in from them....  or write self-modifying
>interrupt code...8-)
>

Agreed. See last answer, 2nd paragraph. [and jeez, "self-modifying
interrupt code" ... - no perfesser I ever knew could do that].
===================

>><ACTUAL POINT>
>>But you are entirely correct - "learning to learn" is really
>>what it's all about.
>
>Absolutely.  I don't think I've ever done a project where I haven't
>learnt something new & useful, or thought of a trick I could have used
>in a previous project.
>

Ditto. [ditto]. [[[ditto]]].
===========

>>The rest is just what it takes to get a
>>diploma. Good tools help too.
>
>But the ability to figure out how to manage without can also be pretty
>useful too, like when you fry your ICE at 7PM on a Friday night!
>

Ahhh, as they say, "you can't always hit every nail using the same
hammer", or something like that.
=================

>>Whatever actually works best
>>for you is what you want to use.
>></ACTUAL POINT>
>

Good, I'm glad you said that.

best regards,
- Dan
================