Author: Per Steneskog
Date: 18:04:39 08/11/04
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On August 11, 2004 at 19:30:50, Richard Pijl wrote: >On August 11, 2004 at 12:47:43, Anthony Cozzie wrote: > >>>"It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have >>>had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally >>>mutilated beyond hope of regeneration." >>> >>>and >>> >>>"Teaching BASIC should be a criminal offense." >>> >> >>The teaching of introductory computer science has always been of interest to me. >> Right now, most people are taught Java first and C second (=an intermediate >>language), if at all. At CMU, I learned C (before I went there), then C++, then >>ML, then assembly, and I never really used Java at all, although now the >>introductory course is in Java. > >Before I started my study at the Delft University of Technology in 1985 I had >some exposure to Basic (on a COMX-35 and later on an Acorn Electron). >I learned decent programming at the university with Pascal. And I still cannot >find a better language to teach students the basics of programming, including >stuff like records, pointers etc. All basic algorithms and datastructures are >simple to implement in this language. The final tasks did include things like a >backtracking algorithm (with the use of pointers), programming a multiple queue >simulation experiment, implementation of a memory management algorithm, etc. >In the second half year, an assembly course was included. The final task of this >course was to implement a 10-instruction virtual machine in PDP-11 assembly >(feasible in just 3 pages of commented assembly). Ok, it is not the most modern >processor, but a very nice one that demonstrates the principles of assembly >programming. > >IMHO only after passing the courses: >- How to program properly (in Pascal) >- How do computers work (in assembly) >a student is ready to learn (and appreciate) C. > >Richard. > I was probably using Basic[a] too many years (well, that was the only thing i had until upper level of compulsory school). But my travel was very similiar to yours Richard. Though in university we studied Scheme (Lisp) and Simula as well in the beginning. Sadly, today all courses are now using Java. The reasons are that the teachers only cares about their subjects (database, numerical analyze, project development, compiler construction etc). They don't wont to spend "expensive" time, teaching the students a new language. To me that feels like they are educating carpenters who has nothing in their toolbox but a hammer. // Regards Per Steneskog
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