Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!lll-tis!ptsfa!ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!pur-ee!j.cc.purdue.edu!k.cc.purdue.edu!l.cc.purdue.edu!roz 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"]