Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ncar!gatech!udel!princeton!njsmu!mccc!pjh
From: pjh@mccc.edu (Pete Holsberg)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Language Use
Keywords: C,Ada,Pascal,C++,Other?
Message-ID: <1991Mar19.023220.6665@mccc.edu>
Date: 19 Mar 91 02:32:20 GMT
References: <1991Mar15.134054.6830@pdn.paradyne.com> <3s3wy4w163w@mimas.UUCP>
Organization: The College On The Other Side Of Route One
Lines: 48

In article <3s3wy4w163w@mimas.UUCP> mcn@mimas.UUCP (Michael C. Neuman) writes:
=reggie@paradyne.com (George W. Leach) writes:
=
=> 	I teach part-time, in the evenings at a junior college.  I am 
=> teaching for the Engineering Technology Department, so my focus is
=> different.

Other than teaching full-time, our situations are identical.

=> They still require FORTRAN, but we also offer a C course
=> for which the FORTRAN course is the prerequisite.

We require FORTRAN of our Engineering Science students but not of our
Engineering Technology students.  We find it more important that they
learn to use the computer as a tool, rather than as a programming
instrument.  After all, there are a lot of good analysis programs
already in existence.  I would rather see Engineerining Techs learn how
to use the analysis programs (e.g., PSPICE for EETs, DCA for CETs, etc.)
and CAD than spend a lot of time learning programming.  HOWEVER, ABET --
the Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology -- has deemed
programming a necessary skill, and that's why I'm the author of "C For
Electronics and Computer Engineering Technology"!!  ;-)

Oh, yes -- we teach the EETs Z80 assembly language programming, too. 
Goes very well with the microcontroller course.

=> I advise my students to learn both
=> FORTRAN and C, unless they know for sure what area of engineering they
=> want to go into.
=>

Do all your students transfer to four year engineering schools or do
they go to engineering tech schools and/or out to industry?

=  Thus, my advice: learn them both. If you want to be a programmer, learn 
=C, if you want to be an engineer, learn FORTRAN. If you're not sure, 
=learn both of them. C is hard to learn, FORTRAN just requires knowledge 
=of BASIC.

But if you're going to be an engineering technologist, maybe you don't
need either???

Pete
-- 
Prof. Peter J. Holsberg      Mercer County Community College
Voice: 609-586-4800          Engineering Technology, Computers and Math
UUCP:...!princeton!mccc!pjh  1200 Old Trenton Road, Trenton, NJ 08690
Internet: pjh@mccc.edu	     Trenton Computer Festival -- 4/20-21/91