Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!ucsd!ucsbcsl!apple!acm9
From: acm9@apple.ucsb.edu (Mike O'Brien)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: \"standard\" pascal
Message-ID: <2046@hub.ucsb.edu>
Date: 1 Jul 89 06:25:32 GMT
References: <20160@adm.BRL.MIL>
Sender: news@hub.ucsb.edu
Reply-To: acm9@apple.UUCP (Mike O'Brien)
Organization: University of California, Santa Barbara
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In article <20160@adm.BRL.MIL> PETERSEN@ctrvx1.Vanderbilt.Edu (Chris Petersen - VUCC) writes:
>From:	IN%"afoiani@dante.nmsu.edu"  "Anthony Foiani" 30-JUN-1989 17:50:38.96
>Integrated environment?  This gets in the way of teaching the
>language underlying the product, and becomes something else
>which both instructor and student must spend time and brain-
>power on...
On the contrary, the integrated environment makes things alot easier
on the first-time programmer.  I'm not saying they'll never have to
learn command-line compiling, but why complicate things when they're
first learning to program?  I recently taught a friend how to program
using Turbo Pascal, and she was VERY grateful for the integrated
environment.  Especially the help key.  In TP5, you can put the cursor
on any instruction in your program and press CTRL-F1 and get a
description of that instruction.  Even better, when you get a compile-
time error, you can press F1 and it will give suggestions to what
you might have done wrong.  Now that is some teaching aid!

>Industry base?  So what?  That is like arguing that the only
>Pascal compiler you have to know is the one on IBM 370-series
>machines because they dominate some sectors of the market...
Yes, but if you're going to learn Pascal programming under MS-DOS,
why not use the Pascal compiler that most businesses use under
MS-DOS?  I mean, no sense in going into job interviews and saying,
"Sorry, I only know Aztec Pascal."  When you switch to a different
operating system, learning the differences in Pascal versions is
going to be the least of your worries...

Mike O'Brien
acm9@cornu.ucsb.edu