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From: ark@ut-sally.UUCP (Arthur M. Keller)
Newsgroups: net.lang.pascal,net.college
Subject: Re: pascal ass intro. language
Message-ID: <4360@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Mar-86 19:09:04 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.4360
Posted: Mon Mar  3 19:09:04 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Mar-86 05:11:05 EST
References: <192@bu-cs.UUCP> <4253@ut-sally.UUCP> <433@snow.warwick.UUCP>
Reply-To: ark@sally.UUCP (Arthur M. Keller)
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 29
Xref: watmath net.lang.pascal:505 net.college:1180

In article <433@snow.warwick.UUCP> kay@warwick.UUCP (Kay Dekker)
writes about my disparaging remarks on teaching Ada as a first
language.  The main issue appears to be that if you restrict yourself
to the features of Pascal when teaching Ada, what's wrong with using
Ada syntax and an Ada compiler?  Pascal can run on lots of
environments rather efficiently.  I am not convinced that the typical
Ada compiler will compile a Pascal-like program as quickly and running
as fast as a Pascal compiler for the same machine would do to the
Pascal program.  Pascal is a simple yet powerful language.  It has
most of the features you would want to use when teaching intro CS and
programming using the Algol-based language paradigm.  Most
corresponding things in Ada are more complex and have the potential
for confusing novices.  I cannot believe that learning Ada as a second
language after Pascal will disadvantage a programmer over learning Ada
as a first language; I think it would be an advantage.

>Have you ever tried to explain Pascal I/O to beginners?  I have, and I can't
>say it sounds entirely convincing.

I have done it reasonably successfully in class and in my book.  Have
you ever tried to explain Ada I/O to programmers new to Ada, let alone
novices to programming?

Arthur

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