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From: hsu@eneevax.UUCP (Dave Hsu)
Newsgroups: net.lang,net.cse
Subject: Re: introductory programming languages
Message-ID: <539@eneevax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Feb-86 08:31:16 EST
Article-I.D.: eneevax.539
Posted: Wed Feb 26 08:31:16 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Mar-86 01:22:37 EST
References: <6796@boring.UUCP> <3362@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: hsu@eneevax.UUCP (Dave Hsu)
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In article <3362@umcp-cs.UUCP> mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) writes:
>...
>I do have some comments about the efficacy of Pascal as a teaching language
>(which, we should all remember, was its orginal intent).  My experience is
>that for people who haven't programmed, the syntax is too troublesome.
>Without BNF it is difficult to account for where semicolons go.  The bug in
>relational-boolean precedence is also a problem.  THe handling of text files
>is problematic.
>
>An ideal procedural teaching language would avoid:
>
>* Begin-end blocks
>* statement delimiters
>* complicated output formatting
>
>It would have:
>
>* a string type
>* recursion
>* parameter passing by value and reference
>* strong typing
>* lots of run-time (and even development-time) support
>

To Charley's list I would add:
It should avoid:

* `FORWARD'-type statements to allow forward referencing
* Variable length statements; i.e. CASE and IF statement default clauses
				should be mandatory (re semicolon problem)
* Complicated EOF and EOLN mechanisms; I still don't see why EOLN should
				not be valid at EOF

It should include:

* Completely generic assignment; record A = record B without the subfield stuff
* Some sort of improved pointer debugging

>
>These of course are my own opinions, and do not represent the opinions of
>the U. of Md. Computer Science Department or any of its personnel other than
>myself.
>
>C. Wingate

ditto disclaimer,
-dave
-- 
David Hsu	Communication & Signal Processing Lab, EE Department
<disclaimer>	University of Maryland,  College Park, MD 20742
hsu@eneevax.umd.edu  {seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!eneevax!hsu

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