Re: Which language to teach first?

Article View: comp.lang.misc

Article #442

#442

From: Tapani Tarvainen
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 1989 15:41

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In Jyvaskyla University Pascal is taught as the first language.
The most important reason (which disqualifies Ada in particular)
is the availability of cheap and easy-to-use compilers for PCs.
I suspect this is the decisive factor in quite a few places.

I can't, however, resist the temptation to quote Edsger Dijkstra here
[describing his idea of an introductory programming course 
in the 1988 SIGCSE Award Lecture (titled "On the cruelty of really
teaching computer science"!)]:

"... we see to it that the programming language in question has _not_
been implemented on campus so that students are protected from the
temptation to test their programs."

-- 
Tapani Tarvainen    (tarvaine@jyu.fi, tarvainen@finjyu.bitnet)

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From: tarvaine@tukki.jyu.fi (Tapani Tarvainen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Which language to teach first?
Message-ID: <1114@tukki.jyu.fi>
Date: 9 Aug 89 15:41:03 GMT
References: <2551@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu>
Reply-To: tarvaine@tukki.jyu.fi (Tapani Tarvainen)
Organization: University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
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