Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!amygdala.cis.ohio-state.edu!stucki From: stucki@amygdala.cis.ohio-state.edu (David J Stucki) Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula2 Subject: Re: Oh My! Modula-2 Book Message-ID: Date: 14 Mar 91 17:07:23 GMT References: <2177.27DB3A01@puddle.fidonet.org> <2441@sumax.seattleu.edu> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Organization: Ohio State University Computer and Information Science Lines: 35 In-reply-to: zander@sumax.seattleu.edu's message of 13 Mar 91 16:28:39 GMT From: zander@sumax.seattleu.edu (Carol Zander) Organization: Seattle University, Seattle WA I'm currently teaching the standard beginning sequence of programming at Seattle University using Oh My! Modula-2! We're at the end of the second course. In the evaluations of the first course, the majority of students strongly disliked the book and I tend to agree with them. The book does not develop smoothly. The examples are poor -- some just stupid and some too complicated. He uses all non-standard libraries. Overall, the book isn't terrible, but it's not good either. I'm looking for a different text for next year. We are using Cooper's book here at Ohio State for the introductory courses for cis majors and are quite happy with it. This is the first quarter we have used it and also the first quarter that I have received positive comments on the required text from students. I have not seen a Modula-2 text that I would rather teach out of thus far. As far as the examples, they appear to have been chosen to support Cooper's philosophy of software design and engineering, which incorporates top-down design and object-oriented design. The use of non-standard libraries should not be a disadvantage, since the "standard" ones are rarely implemented correct wrt Wirth. Cooper's IO module is much cleaner than either the InOut provided by Metrowerks (for the MAC) or Sun. dave... -- David J Stucki /\ ~~ /\ ~~ /\ ~~ /\ ~~ c/o Dept. Computer and 537 Harley Dr. #6 / \ / \ / \ / \ / Information Science Columbus, OH 43202 \/ \ / \ / \ / 2036 Neil Ave. stucki@cis.ohio-state.edu ~ \/ ~~ \/ ~~ \/ Columbus, OH 43210