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From: garry@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Garry Wiegand)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc,comp.edu
Subject: How to teach computers
Message-ID: <2030@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Date: Wed, 14-Jan-87 23:46:47 EST
Article-I.D.: batcompu.2030
Posted: Wed Jan 14 23:46:47 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Jan-87 20:22:40 EST
Reply-To: garry%cadif-oak@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu
Organization: Cornell Engineering && Flying Moose Graphics
Lines: 36
Xref: mnetor comp.lang.misc:148 comp.edu:48

(cross-posted from comp.lang.misc to comp.edu)

In a recent article bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) wrote:
>...
>Actually, I am more and more drawn towards the concept of surveying
>programming languages in a first 1-year course, possibly getting a
>little proficiency in one but touching upon more than just one or two.
>...

This was my own actual experience and I can vouch for its worth: the
second c.s. course I ever took was the graduate Computing Languages
Survey and - it was FUN! We did NOT spend much time talking about the 
abstractions or the details of the languages; instead, the professor was 
adept at picking problems and projects, and we could just *see* how the 
languages fitted in with the problem. It quickly became obvious that
each computer language had a mental model - a way of thinking of things -
associated with it. More slowly - serenditously - it became obvious that 
programming itself was just a matter of finding the right mental model,
the right way of looking at any given problem...

Programming can be thought of as a painful matter of cramming one's
ideas into a very rigid, stylized, and unforgiving space --- or it can
be thought of as mind-expanding and creative. I think it can be a means 
of *discovering* a solution, of finding the "right" description of the 
problem, not just a matter of encoding machine instructions. Learning-
by-survey promotes this thoughtfulness, and I think it's an excellent
idea.

As an aside: the ACM back in 1968 or so made a "suggested" list of CS 
course offerings. I noticed a while back when I was applying to grad
schools that 80% of the schools in the country had just adopted that 
list, with but trivial variations. When you speak of creative thinking, 
CS departments would seem to come in last. Changing their whole approach 
to first-year courses is not going to be easy :-(

garry wiegand   (garry%cadif-oak@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu)