Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!cogsci.berkeley.edu!jamin From: jamin@cogsci.berkeley.edu (Sugih Jamin) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Which language to teach first? Message-ID: <30666@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: 16 Aug 89 01:40:30 GMT References: <2552@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu> <6204@hubcap.clemson.edu> <5594@ficc.uu.net> <1501@shuksan.UUCP> <228@zip.eecs.umich.edu> Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: jamin@cogsci.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Sugih Jamin) Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 15 My first language was Scheme. My second language C. But that is of no importance. As my prof. likes to say, "Teach them the concepts, they'll pick up any language within a week." I sort of agree with that belief, even though I haven't learned Prolog. But the point is, if the choice of language is immaterial, then, as a student, I sincerely beg professors to teach a language that they can support with 1) a good accompanying textbook--for example, Scheme has the excellent Abelson & Sussman, 2) a fast compiler/interpreter (Scheme or Saber C), 3) a good debugger, and 4) an intelligent editor and otherwise supportive environment-- the trio: GNU Emacs, C, and UNIX comes to mind. In general, keep the frustration to the minimum. sugih