Xref: utzoo comp.edu:2366 comp.lang.misc:3182 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!cs.utexas.edu!romp!d75!awdprime!ron From: ron@woan.austin.IBM.COM Newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Which language to teach first? Message-ID: Date: 28 Jul 89 22:05:03 GMT References: <8514@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> Sender: news@awdprime.UUCP Followup-To: comp.edu Organization: /u/ron/.organization Lines: 16 In-reply-to: lacey@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu's message of 28 Jul 89 18:49:13 GMT Cal Berkeley switched over to Scheme a few year ago for its intro class, and I found that it was a better first language than the ALGOL derivatives (Pascal,Fortran,C) because it teaches functional programming and recursion, as well as data structures. At least if the instructor follows Abelson and Sussman. Then again any language is probably fine if your instructors are willing to make the extra effort to introduce those topics early on, so students will be less confused later. -- ********************************************************************************* * Ronald S. Woan at IBM-Austin * * ron@woan.austin.ibm.COM WOAN AT AUSVMV * * Division 75 Department E63 *