Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!ginosko!aplcen!aplvax.jhuapl.edu!genesch From: genesch@aplvax.jhuapl.edu (Eugene Schwartzman) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Learning Ada Message-ID: <2684@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu> Date: 16 Aug 89 14:19:55 GMT Sender: news@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu Reply-To: genesch@aplvax.jhuapl.edu (Eugene Schwartzman) Organization: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Lines: 51 In article <1502@shuksan.UUCP> scott@shuksan.UUCP (Scott Moody) writes: >I think that the beginning college student today has already >had more exposure to programming than any of us. Define 'us'. Or did you mean to say any of us had when we *started*? > Should >we keep them in the past with giving them simple languages to learn >or make it harder (in our eyes) on them and provide them with >the next generation of languages (eg Ada, etc). What do you consider 'simple' languages? Pascal? Lisp? Prolog? Assembly? What? In my university the beginning language of the CS department is Pascal. It has a course in FORTRAN in the CS and Engineering departments for those who want to learn a language but don't want the hassle of all CS stuff and also there is a course in Pascal for non-majors. Basically, Pascal without any CS stuff. The Business Management Dpt. offers COBOL (ugh...). So, as you can see there are plenty of places to go if you don't want to learn CS. > >Let those students that haven't had exposure take the remedial >CS courses, which should be more advanced than the remedial >courses of today. Keep advancing the entry level of the beginning courses. And what do you teach in these 'remedial' courses? > >Keeping the entry level at the same basic level may not be >in the best interest of the more intelligent generation of students >and makes advancements in CS technology slower. > Oh hell, why don't we just make them write an OS using Prolog as the very first program in college. That way thay can design a brand new computer by the time they are seniors. :-) Seriously, I don't care how many languages a person knows or how well he programs when he enters college, but who wants to bet that they have none or little conception of what is a structured program and almost nobody knows how to write algorithms. There are certain basics that a CS student must know, otherwise he cannot do more advanced stuff and how many high school teachers worry about teaching structured programming, algorithms, etc...? gene schwartzman genesch@aplvax.jhuapl.edu _______________________________________________________________________________ | GO BEARS, GO CUBS, GO WHITE SOX, GO BULLS, GO BLACKHAWKS, GO TERPS !!!!! | | Soccer is a kick in the grass (and sometimes on astroturf)! | | GO DIPLOMATS, GO STARS, GO BAYS, GO BLAST !!!! | | CFL -> GO EDMONTON ESKIMOS!!!! VFL -> GO CARLTON BLUES !!!! | |_____________________________________________________________________________| Disclaimer: These are my opinions and not of my employer.