[Maxatar]

Exactly, imagine thinking you can learn how to program Java or C just from being handed the language specification, or even learn how to play chess just by being told the rules of the game.

Humans don't learn anything of substance just from being told the strict rules, we also learn from a wealth of examples expressed through a variety of means some of which is formal, some poetic, some even comedic.

Heck, we wouldn't even need Stack Overflow to begin with if we could learn things just from basic sources.

[falcolas]

> imagine thinking you can learn how to program Java or C just from being handed the language specification

Throw in the standard library documentation, and that's exactly how many of us learned how to program before projects like stackoverflow or even the web existed for the public. We took those rules, explored the limits of them using the compiler, and learned.

Stackoverflow is, IMO, a shortcut through portions of the exploration and learning phase. Not a bad thing, but importantly it's not required either.

[Maxatar]

Yeah I was programming from way before Stackoverflow existed and I simply call BS.

No one learned Java or C by reading either of the following documents:

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se10/html/index.htm...

https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n1256.pdf

It's cool to romanticize the past though.