Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!pacbell!ames!xanth!ginosko!aplcen!aplvax.jhuapl.edu!genesch
From: genesch@aplvax.jhuapl.edu (Eugene Schwartzman)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Which language to teach first?
Message-ID: <2552@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu>
Date: 7 Aug 89 20:14:14 GMT
Sender: news@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu
Reply-To: genesch@aplvax.jhuapl.edu (Eugene Schwartzman)
Organization: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Lines: 43

In article <6199@hubcap.clemson.edu> billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe,2847,) writes:

#From mproicou@blackbird.afit.af.mil (Michael C. Proicou):
#>>I could probably make a good argument for a language like Ada [...] 
#> 
#> I mostly agree, EXCEPT you have to do generics to any kind of output of
#> numbers and things!  For that reason, I'd recommend Pascal, with a switch
#> to Ada if that's your end goal.  Since Ada is close to Pascal, very little
#> would be lost in switching languages.
#
#    All that is necessary is to provide the student with standard
#    Integer_IO and Float_IO instantiations, and mention that these
#    two packages, plus Text_IO, will serve to handle this class's 
#    I/O requirements; it's a lot easier for the student to accept 
#    a deferred explanation of generics than it is to switch languages 
#    entirely!! 
#
#    Ada provides lots of room for the highly motivated student to
#    read ahead and go beyond what the class is doing; Pascal can
#    provide nothing more than severe frustration.   

Totally disagree!!!!  You obviously have not worked with Pascal too much.
1) I have worked with it for a long time, and the frustration level I 
   encountered didn't even come close to the one I met when I started working
   with Ada.
2) A highly motivated student can read ahead and go beyond what the class is
   doing in *any* language.  A group of friends and I decided to find a better
   Pascal book than what was available thru class.  We did, looked it over,
   found a lotof neat shortcuts.. result - our programs were usually 20 - 40%
   smaller than the rest of the class, worked faster, and worked.
3) If you are going to provide the standard packages, etc... wouldn't it be
   a lot simpler if you just provided Pascal, that doesn't worry about any
   of that garbage.

gene schwartzman
genesch@aplvax.jhuapl.edu
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