Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!physics.utoronto.ca!dooley
From: dooley@physics.utoronto.ca (Kevin Dooley)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: introductory language
Message-ID: <1990Apr9.114303.501@helios.physics.utoronto.ca>
Date: 9 Apr 90 15:43:03 GMT
References: <7300008@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <5978@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> <4147@ethz.UUCP>
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA
Lines: 28

In article <4147@ethz.UUCP> mrys@bernina.ethz.ch.UUCP (Michael Rys) writes:
>In article <7300008@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> cs290ac@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>>I'm looking for opinions on what languages people think should
>>be taught as introduction to programming for both CS majors and
>>non-CS majors.  My initial opinions are C for CS majors because
>>of its popularity, and its low-level programming characteristics.
>
>DON'T go with C if you want to teach CS. I would propose the following 
>
>This is for CS students. If you want to teach non-CS students I
>would either go for Modula-2, Pascal or Lisp, APL (still great for
>Mathematics).
I disagree.  If a non-CS student is taking a CS course, it is because
that student wishes to learn how to program, most likely because they
will be using computers in problem solving.  In other words, they will
need to know how to do practical things using practical readily available
languages.  C is easily the most common language on large machines
so, despite all of the difficulties in learning C as a first language,
you do students a disservice by teaching them something that they
can't use.  I have no objection to teaching CS majors some goofy
language like lisp as a first language, but those of us in the sciences
need practicality.
	Kevin
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