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From: reggie@paradyne.com (George W. Leach)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Language Use
Keywords: C,Ada,Pascal,C++,Other?
Message-ID: <1991Mar15.134054.6830@pdn.paradyne.com>
Date: 15 Mar 91 13:40:54 GMT
References: <1150@ra.MsState.Edu>
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In article <1150@ra.MsState.Edu> thr1@ra.MsState.Edu (Thomas Ritter) writes:
>	I've been hearing some discussion in our department about changing
>our primary language from Pascal to something else.

	I'm assuming you teach in a CS department.

>I don't want to start the Ada vs C vs "other" argument.... 

	Nobody wants another one of those.....

>	I would like to hear what people consider important in making a
>decision. ( Usefulness in the real world, teaching ease, programming
>environment... etc.)

	Those are excellent questions.  The answers will depend upon
whom you talk to.  Pascal has traditionally been the language of choice
in CS programs due to its use as a teaching language.  However, since
I left school I have never used it in the "real world".  Certainly, one
could argue that the principles can be taught with Pascal and then you
can map these into whatever language you choose to use in your work.
But many employers want to see specific language and OS skills on a
resume.  They are not interested in training someone in these skills.

	Pascal reminds me of a bike with training wheels.  But you can't
take the training wheels off and use the bike once you have learned.  If
we could put training wheels on a language such as C, and then take them
off when we have learned how to keep our balance, then we would have
something.


>I would also like to find out what some other schools are doing.


	I teach part-time, in the evenings at a junior college.  I am 
teaching for the Engineering Technology Department, so my focus is
different.  They still require FORTRAN, but we also offer a C course
for which the FORTRAN course is the prerequisite.  I have heard some
rumblings about the FORTRAN requirement going away, but I have not
heard what it would be replaced with.  Some say a general course in
using CAD packages, and other tools.  But I just can't see all of an
engineer's computing needs being served by this approach.  Not everything
fits into such nice, neat solutions.  I advise my students to learn both
FORTRAN and C, unless they know for sure what area of engineering they
want to go into.


George

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