🚀 go-pugleaf

In comp.lang.modula2 you write:

>We are considering replacing Pascal with Modula2 as the language of
>instruction in our introductory Computer Science courses and were
>wondering (1) How many other schools have made this change? (2) How
>has it worked out? Any response would be appreciated.

        At the University of East Anglia, in sunny Norwich, England (sunny ??
England ?? oh, well ...) Modula-2 has now replaced Pascal as the 'standard'
language for first year (and obviously the same people in subsequent years)
undergraduates. I am a second year, and my year was the first to use Modula-2;
the change was very simple (the humongous similarity between M-2 and Pascal did
have a lot to do with this) and the language is both easy(ish) to learn and
versatile, so there have been no real problems in changing languages.

        The situation on books about the language is rapidly improving; the
only book you could really find when we started out with M-2 was "Modula-2:
Constructive Program Development" by P.Messer and Ian Marshall (Ian Marshall
also happened to be my lecturer on Modula-2!!), but there are now many, many
more wonderful books about the language (on this side of the puddle anyway, I
can't speak for America).

        The only potential problem with the change came about 3 weeks ago (well
over a year into the new language!!); our second year courses can be taken by
third years as well, so we have classes with both second and third years at the
same time. Hence a possible problem - second years know Modula-2; third years
know Pascal ('cos they were the last lot to learn it before we arrived and got
stuck with Modula-2). Therefore there is a slight clash in the coursework for
one of the subjects we cover: "... write a Modula-2 program to ...", but a bit
of being-a-nice-chappie from the relevant lecturer has allowed the third year
to use Pascal because it is so similar.

        CONCLUSION:

        Go for it !! It's an interesting and versatile language, easy(ish) to
learn, and in my opinion well worth the change.

   ...  and that's coming from someone who was on the student's end of the
  changeover ...

        Oh, yes ... could you bung me a summary of the replies you get to this
query ?? I'd be very interested to hear what other people say on the matter !!

        Dave Cartwright,
            School of Information Systems (Yr II),
                University of East Anglia,
                    Norwich,
                        ENGLAND.