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From: roth@dtoa1.dt.navy.mil (Roth)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Teaching Fortran
Message-ID: <6468@oasys.dt.navy.mil>
Date: 20 Mar 91 12:46:40 GMT
References: <9103131812.AA17727@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Sender: news@oasys.dt.navy.mil
Reply-To: roth@dtoa1.dt.navy.mil (Pete Roth)
Organization: David Taylor Research Center, Bethesda, MD
Lines: 53

In article <9103131812.AA17727@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> taylor@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Ross Taylor) writes:
>Teaching Fortran to University Students
>---------------------------------------
>
	[...deleted stuff...}
>
>1.  Do you actually teach programming itself or are your
>    students expected to pick up programming skills in order to
>    solve problems that are best solved with a computer?

Most new engineers who we hire know "a little" Fortran. Most of what we
"officially" teach is Fortran syntax. *How* to write programs is hard
to teach; the best presentation I've seen is in Cooper's "Oh! Pascal!"
>
>2.  When is the first programming course given (first or second
>    semseter, first or second year etc)?
>
>3.  Do you require Fortran, or are other languages acceptable?
>
Fortran is necessary for our folk to do anything with extant programs.
But, because we have so many PC's around, and engineering workstations
as well, new programs can be written in whatever suits the computation.
My own preference is Turbo Pascal. I've taught courses with it to our
engineers and to junior college classes, and found it superior to other
languages because it provides an *environment*. The latest version (6.x)
even provides the skeleton for an event-driven program that programmers
can use in a "fill-in-the-blanks" approach, but it uses the non-Fortran
"object oriented" approach...(pluses & minuses everywhere!). The advantage
I find is that it is a convenient way to learn programming, IF your
facilities allow each student access to a PC. Also, there's a full on-line
help facility in TP6.0. Finally, I haven't found what I call "The Best Fortran
Textbook" because the language is irregular enough to make this a
difficult subject to write about (you have to grow up as a native of
Fortrania to speak the language correctly).

>4.  If you do teach programming (syntax etc) as part of any
>    required course, what percentage of the time is spent on
>    this topic?  Any non-Fortran, non-programming material
>    covered? Any other comments on course content would be
>    gratefully received as well.
>
Syntax takes the first 4 weeks, then its on to other things. Note that I
usually have to refer to the syntax manual myself, & I've been doing this for 
too long.

I opine that the other "non-programming" material you're presenting is
extremely useful to the students. One of my colleagues believes that
the minimum computing an engineer needs (i.e., the *bare* minimum) is
spreadsheet & wordprocessor & Mathematica. Teach these in the Freshman year,
and your entire curriculum will change.

Peter N Roth      roth@dtoa1.dt.navy.mil
Objects in this office are closer than they appear.