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Hey - I'm holding the bags, and I'm taller than they are!
(And I can eat sweeties faster it I want to...)
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Brent Jenkins wrote: Box "a" contains two items, box "b" contains three items, how many items have I got if I add what's in box "a" to what's in box "b"?
Some beans[^]. 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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There's a lot of truth in the Blackadder episodes 
How do you know so much about swallows? Well, you have to know these things when you're a king, you know.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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Try it again:
Box "a" contains two items cats, box "b" contains three items mice, how many items have I got if I add what's in box "a" to what's in box "b"?
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Still five items. Both are probably derived from "animal" which is derived from "object" anyway
How do you know so much about swallows? Well, you have to know these things when you're a king, you know.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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Probably the three smaller items will be integrated with the two larger items if you put them together. Would you still call it five items after the integration process is completed?
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This whole thread explains what's wrong with programmers and why so many projects go belly up
How do you know so much about swallows? Well, you have to know these things when you're a king, you know.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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Why not take it one step further: You put two cat items and three mice items into a closed box with no way to inspect the interior. Once you have closed and sealed the box, you will be unable to determine the total number of items in the box at any given time, until you break the seal.
If Schrödinger had designed sucn an experiment, he probably would have suggested two large dog items and three kitten items - rumours are that he wasn't very much in favor of protecting cats from harm.
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Uh-oh! You're starting to sound like a systems architect now..
How do you know so much about swallows? Well, you have to know these things when you're a king, you know.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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"Pointers and memory addresses are a future topic Laugh | "
There are those that never ever get the concept of pointers. These people usually switch majors from programming to marketing. 
Fletcher Glenn
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I never understood the fuss about pointers, they always seemed pretty straightforward to me.
Trying to teach a 6 year old about hex or binary is probably pushing things a bit though
How do you know so much about swallows? Well, you have to know these things when you're a king, you know.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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You can tell him the story with a bucket a which has 2 liters in it ...
Maybe he got other talents like singing or crafting things. 
Press F1 for help or google it.
Greetings from Germany
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My son has a BS in Computer Science. Many years ago when we had that conversation it went like this:
Me: Let a=2 and let b=3. What's a + b?
Colin: 5. Get out of the way old man, I have an algorithm to debug!
The kid always was a quick study...
Like someone else wrote - memory addresses and pointers are probably a bit too advanced. Stick with a container appropriate to the age.
Contrary to popular belief, nobody owes you anything.
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rnbergren wrote: Ideas? I didn't get anywhere.
When I was first exposed to programming, I had the hardest time understanding how a computer new "what a is." One day, I just got it.
Here's what you do. Take two bowls, and label them "A" and "B" (actually label them, don't just say, let's call this bowl "A" and this bowl "B"!) Put 2 lemons (or apples, or whatever) in bowl A. Put 3 in bowl B. Ask your son how many lemons/apples/whatever are in both A and B. Then ask your son what A+B is.
Label a third empty bowl C. Ask your son to physically express "C = A + B" by moving the fruit from bowls A and B into C.
I'm sure he'll get it. Explaining all about memory address stuff is way to abstract without tangible, physical memnonics (or whatever the word is.)
Marc
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Yes, and if you use a mix of apples, lemons, oranges, etc. you can refer to it all as "fruit" and then go on to talk about class inheritance and so on... Brilliant!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Forogar wrote: es, and if you use a mix of apples, lemons, oranges, etc. you can refer to it all as "fruit" and then go on to talk about class inheritance and so on... Brilliant!
Hah! That is brilliant! I hadn't thought of that. 
Marc
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I should add, He isn't that young. He is really quite good at Science and Math. So logically speaking we weren't way off topic at all. Over 10
To err is human to really mess up you need a computer
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Does he know algebra?
What exactly would you like to explain?
Variables are an abstraction for a model that we use in math, programming and other things.
Talking about A and B allow us to think in general (abstract) terms.
I think that was astute for him to ask why not just add 2+3 together if he doesn't understand the need for the abstraction.
I agree with Mark's line of explanation, use something tangible.
To tie the entire argument together, where does the answer get stored?
If the equation is A+B=C, have a third bowl labeled C, place the bowls A and B inside of C.
How many oranges are in C.
A is still equal to 2
B is still equal to 3
C is now equal to 5
And no laws of physics had to be broken to magically produce 5 new oranges just to assign the answer to C.
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Just found where I discovered variables aged 8.. on page 58 of this[^].
How do you know so much about swallows? Well, you have to know these things when you're a king, you know.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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rnbergren wrote: Ideas?
Management track?
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Perhaps a DNA test ?
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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It might be time to try the Father Ted "small cow and far away cow" test.
It always gets me and if he passes it he's probably fine.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Perhaps you should put off this sort of discussion until after his third birthday. 
Will Rogers never met me.
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Looks like he could have a bright future in customer support.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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When you go on to constant declarations, you may pick up some hints from the famous Xerox Fortran programming manual (in Fortran, constants are defined by DATA statements), to explain the rationale behind named constants:
The primary purpose of the DATA statement is to give names to constants;
instead of referring to PI as 3.141592653589797, at every appearance,
the variable PI can be given that value with a DATA statement, and
used instead of the longer form of the constant. This also simplifies
modifying the program, should the value of PI change.
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