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From: jnixon@andrew.ATL.GE.COM (John F Nixon)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: introductory language
Message-ID: <259@puma.ge.com>
Date: 10 Apr 90 14:40:07 GMT
References: <7300008@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <960021@hpcll14.HP.COM> <257@puma.ge.com>
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I wrote:
>davee@hpcll14.HP.COM (Dave Elliott) writes:
>[stuff about intro course taught in C]
>>    5) The students that graduate are having an easier time finding jobs.

>This is a difficult question to answer, but how do the successful students
>of the C course compare in job performance with the successful Pascal course
>students?  Perhaps employers are using C to "wash out" marginal programmers
>since C requires some discipline to use.

Reading this again made me question a couple of things.  One, if this is
really an introductory course, why do the students think that is all that
is required to obtain a job?  Name one other field of study where people get
jobs after an introductory course.  Two, why do the employers think this
way!?

Something seems misnamed here - either you are training already educated
programmers in C (in which case the course is "Topics in C programming"),
or this is an "introductory programming" course, in which case choice of
language is better made on reasons other than market forces.
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jnixon@atl.ge.com                    ...steinmetz!atl.decnet!jnxion