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From: render@cassius.cs.uiuc.edu (Hal Render)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Intro Language Survey (Results)
Message-ID: <1990Nov16.005525.18383@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 16 Nov 90 00:55:25 GMT
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Organization: U. of Illinois, Dept. of Computer Science, Systems Research Group
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Originator: render@cassius.cs.uiuc.edu

Here are the numeric results of the survey I posted a few weeks ago.  
I have tried to tally the responses as accurately as possible.  I will
post a selected collection of comments from the responses in a week or
two.  They make interesting reading.

If anyone wishes to see the complete responses, send me e-mail and I
I will send you copies.  

My thanks to everyone who participated.

hal render
render@zeppo.colorado.edu
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> Survey Questions:
> 
> 1) Are you a student, a professional programmer, or an instructor? 
> 2) What programming language do (did) you use in your introductory
>    programming and data structures courses?
> 3) Do you feel that the language is a good one for this purpose?
> 4) What other language (if any) would you prefer?

1) Total number of respondents: 63

2) Number of respondents by country:

	USA      43
   	Canada    6
   	Australia 5
   	Finland   2
   	Germany   2
   	UK        2
   	Austria   1
   	Israel    1
   	Sweden    1

3) Number of respondents by position:

  	instructors   38 
  	students      16
   	professionals  9 

4) Number of programming languages used in intro programming and data 
   structure courses [1]:

  	Pascal     37 [2]   
   	Modula-2    9 [3]
   	Ada         5
   	Scheme      4
   	C           3
   	Miranda     2
   	ML          2
   	Turing      1
   	LISP        1
   	FORTRAN     1
   	C++         1
   	APL         1
   	ALGOL       1 [4]

    [1] a) Some respondents discussed more than one language.  In
	   the cases where one language seemed to dominate their comments, 
	   I counted only this one.  Otherwise I counted all of languages 
	   discussed.  This is why the language count totals more than 63.
        b) In some cases respondents distinguished between courses taught
	   for CS or LAS students and courses taught strictly for engineers.
	   In thoses cases, I counted only the courses taught for CS or
	   LAS students.  In most cases where a course strictly for engineers 
	   was taught, the language used was FORTRAN.
	c) In a few cases students mentioned past intro courses versus recent 
	   intro courses.  In those cases I counted only the recent courses.
    [2] a) 4 of the respondents specifically mentioned Turbo Pascal.
	b) 5 of the 37 were from respondents who were referring to courses
	   from a college or university already counted.  Subtract these 5 
	   from consideration if desired.
    [3] a) 1 of these is refers to a course already counted.  See [2].
    [4] a) Respondent used the language in a course taken in 1977. 

5) Count of positive/neutral/negative recommendations for each language used:

	Pascal		20/9/4 [5]
	TurboPascal	 2/1/1	
	Modula-2	 5/2/2 [5]
	Ada		 4/1/0
	Scheme		 3/0/1
	C		 2/0/1
	Miranda		 2/0/0
	ML		 2/0/0
	Turing		 1/0/0
	LISP		 1/0/0
	FORTRAN		 0/0/1
	C++		 1/0/0
	APL		 1/0/0
	ALGOL		 0/1/0

    [5] a) All recommendations were counted including those from respondents
	   referring to the same courses.

6) Count of other languages preferred for intro programming course [6]:

	none			19

	Modula-2		6
	Modula-2 possibly	4

	C++			4
	some OO C 		1

	C			4
	C possibly		1
	
	Scheme			4

	ML			3
	ML possibly		1

	Ada			3

	some OOPL		3

	LISP			2

	some OO Pascal		2

	Smalltalk		2

	Ada9X			1
	Ada subset		1
	Ada possibly		1

	APL			1

	Miranda			1

	Modula-3		1

	Logo			1

	Eiffel			1
	Eiffel possibly		1

	TurboPascal		1

	Turing			1

	some functional lang. 	1


    [6] a) Many respondents expressed multiple preferences.  All have been
	   counted.  This accounts for the large number of entries.  
	b) Many respondents expressed qualifications.  They have been noted.

7) Counts of other languages preferred for data structure course:

	 C 		3
	 C++ 		2
	 Ada 		1
	 Modula-2 	1

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