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From: sergio@squid.rtech.com (Sergio Aponte)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Which language to teach first?
Message-ID: <3278@rtech.rtech.com>
Date: 2 Aug 89 17:21:59 GMT
References: <3876@shlump.nac.dec.com> <791@dms.UUCP> <119060@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
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Reply-To: sergio@squid.UUCP (Sergio Aponte)
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Organization: Relational Technology, Inc.
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	I believe PASCAL.

	This is the order I learned my languages in : PL/C, PL/1, BASIC,
	FORTRAN, COBOL, GMAP (assembly on Honeywell), PASCAL and C . The only
	reason I learned PASCAL was because it was required to take a Data
	Structures class. Is important to point out that the only ones I have
	used on a non-college environment are COBOL and C.

	But, by the time I got to C, it was all a matter of syntax. Data
	structures, problem solving approach and structured programming were
	elements that can be applied to them all.

	PASCAL is easier on the teacher since the rules bring programs to look
	more alike (easier to correct). It allows recursion, which was a very
	important and hard concept to grasp. It allows the student to get
	closer to what is going on in the computer than COBOL or BASIC would.
	For years I swore by PL/1, until PASCAL, and then C came along.

	I believe that the student MUST learn assembly sooner or later, if not
	to use it ever again, because it gives the student the insight and an
	understanding of what is going on behind the crt. But by all means,
	don't start with it.

	After a few years even my mother learned BASIC and COBOL (true story),
	but it was the problem solving approach and understanding of structure
	that never were thought to her. PASCAL would had opened her eyes to the
	more complex world behind the linear solution.

---
     This has to be my opinion. Nobody else agrees with it!! Sergio.  ;-{D
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| Internet: sergio@squid.rtech.com                Sergio L. Aponte, MTS @ RTI |
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