Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!mstan!amull From: amull@Morgan.COM (Andrew P. Mullhaupt) Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula2 Subject: Re: Modula2 <-- Pacsal Summary: Unexpected Side Effect Message-ID: <588@s5.Morgan.COM> Date: 8 Dec 89 06:22:17 GMT References: Organization: Morgan Stanley & Co. NY, NY Lines: 35 My brother started his Computer Science major at the University of Buffalo (actually S.U.N.Y.at B.) back when they used Pascal in batch, and he was so disgusted that he left school and joined the Air Force. He was at that time already fairly proficient at Pascal. After the Air Force, he went back to U.B., where they were using Modula-2 for introductory computer science. He became converted to Modula-2 even to the extent of preferring going to school to use a terminal for Modula-2 over using Pascal on his PC. Now, he (as I would have guessed) is changing his mind. That *&^%^#$! overworked shift key is starting to bug him, and Modula-2 eventually becomes a bit clumsy looking for simple things, as he now discovers. (Not that these are major issues- just creature comforts). He is even beginning to think that Pascal syntax is cleaner. (I agree, but I can certainly see the other side of the coin. I'm not Modula-2 bashing, just reporting what seems to me an interesting attitude shift in someone who has an interesting perspective on the issue of Pascal vs. Modula-2 as a first language.) I think important issues can be emphasized in either language over the other, but the convenience of the student in working on those interminable projects will be the biggest factor as far as I can see. Is anyone considering the proposed Extended Pascal as a teaching language? Also: I think that guarded commands and concurrent assignment are not really so advanced that students can't grasp them, and I would like to see students learn to specify programs more than I would like to see them bang around Pascal file I/O (or some such other triviality) for their first course. Later, Andrew Mullhaupt