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So, don't just learn to code, learn to solve problems? Well, duh.

Maybe that's not such an obvious point. I'm learning Javascript and php strictly to build new things. Solving problems and streamlining processes for other people was never a motivation in learning.

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It's like saying, don't just teach the syntax, teach the semantics. It's rather obvious. The two can't be separated, because they are the same thing from two different perspectives.

Your comment doesn't make any sense. Syntax and semantics aren't the same thing. That is like saying freeway and tunnel are the same thing from a different perspective.

At least in programming, syntax is structure. A structure can have substructures. If the whole structure has a different meaning than each substructure on its own, then syntax has meaning. Vise-versa, how could you tell the structure of something that doesn't have any meaning to you? How do you know the meaning of a word without knowing the grammar and context? The context is the perspective.

I didn't come up with syntax semantics duality myself and I can't really explain it, because it's actually rather mathematical.

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