Re: Doubts about pointers

[santosh]

Richard Heathfield wrote:

> Keith Thompson said:
> 
> <snip>
>  
>> I don't think anyone was seriously advocating TC2.01 for beginning C
>> programmers.
> 
> I would advocate as many C compilers as possible for beginning C
> programmers.

Why does one need as many compilers as possible to learn ANSI C? Don't
you think the beginner is going to get confused under masses of
implementation extensions?

I would have thought the correct course was to learn first standard C
(with *a* conforming implementation) and then learn the tools for the
system[s] which interest you.

> Why exclude Turbo C? 

To use it well, the beginners would have to be taught the usage of an
almost extinct system, and information about memory models that they
are unlikely to encounter outside the course, which would in any case
be a waste of time in a C course. And it was, I believe, pointed out in
a recent thread that the freely downloadable version of Turbo C fails
to conform even with the C90 standard.

So what are the compelling reasons to make beginners of today start with
Turbo C?