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From: roz@l.cc.purdue.edu (Vu Qui Hao-Nhien)
Newsgroups: soc.college,comp.edu
Subject: Re: First Language Taught in CSC degree track
Message-ID: <558@l.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: Fri, 24-Jul-87 17:07:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: l.558
Posted: Fri Jul 24 17:07:11 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Jul-87 00:35:44 EDT
References: <1472@super.upenn.edu.upenn.edu> <145@wright.EDU>
Reply-To: roz@l.cc.purdue.edu.UUCP (Vu Qui Hao-Nhien)
Organization: Purdue U. Dept. of Mathematics
Lines: 26
Xref: mnetor soc.college:783 comp.edu:525

In article <145@wright.EDU> jholbach@wright.EDU (Jim Holbach) writes:
>in article <1472@super.upenn.edu.upenn.edu>, shaffer@operations.dccs.upenn.edu (Earl Shaffer) says:
>> I have a questions which should stir up a debate.
>> 
>> Which language should be taught first in the Computer Science
>> track for incoming freshman?
>	English.
Right.

And maybe even, God forbid, grammar and paragraph development too !!
It's true that many CS majors can't talk/write properly, but I guess
the damage is usually not hereditary and won't go past one generation
so it's OK :-)

Anyhow, to get back to the real meaning of the original article, at
Purdue, the intro course for CS majors (CS 230) teaches Pascal and C.
They have always been teaching Pascal, and they don't want students of
about the same class going on totally different tracks.

Personally, I like that approach of teaching lisp if your students have
all had programming experience and picked up bad habits here and there.
-- 
"I tawt I taw a tootty tat"
Hao-Nhien Q. Vu (pur-ee!l.cc.purdue.edu!vu)
                (vu@l.cc.purdue.edu)
                [That's "ell", not "one"]