Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!uw-june!kolding From: kolding@june.cs.washington.edu (Eric Koldinger) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Which language to teach first? Message-ID: <9015@june.cs.washington.edu> Date: 15 Aug 89 20:38:28 GMT References: <5688@ficc.uu.net> <6265@hubcap.clemson.edu> Reply-To: kolding@uw-june.cs.washington.edu (Eric Koldinger) Organization: University of Washington, Computer Science, Seattle Lines: 17 In article <6265@hubcap.clemson.edu> billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu writes: >> So, what language should non-majors start with? > > It is probably inadvisable to teach them any language at all; > instead, a survey of user-oriented systems (Hypercard, the > so-called 4GLs, and so on) would probably be more appropriate. Why? Just because someone doesn't want to be a CS major doesn't mean that he/she doesn't want to learn to program, or have need to program. What about, for instance, engineering majors who often have to design large programs, but aren't CS people, per se? -- _ /| Eric Koldinger \`o_O' University of Washington ( ) "Gag Ack Barf" Department of Computer Science U kolding@cs.washington.edu