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
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