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From: keith@telesoft.UUCP (Keith Shillington @spot)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: introductory programming languages
Message-ID: <313@telesoft.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Mar-86 12:54:32 EST
Article-I.D.: telesoft.313
Posted: Tue Mar  4 12:54:32 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Mar-86 06:43:14 EST
References: <6796@boring.UUCP> <3362@umcp-cs.UUCP>
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Organization: TeleSoft, SanDiego CA
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I just read a collection of articles regarding Pascal as an
introductory language for programming, and will add my two cents.

I taught Pascal as a first language for 6 years, and, at the time
believed highly that it was an excellent language for the purpose.  It
is simple, concise, and reasonably orthagonal.

Having personally been raised on BASIC and ForTran, when I hit the
ALGOL languages, I realized the truth in "man is limited to thinking
within his language".

I have withdrawn from the educational community for a few years, and
am now returning "to the fold" in order to create instructional paths
to learning Ada.  It is very clear to me that Ada would be a terrible
first language, and I am considering various paths.  I did not notice
any discussion of Prolog or Smalltalk, which I seem to recall have a
great deal of energy behind them as giving a wider realm of expression
to the programmer.  I would be interested to hear from anyone who has
thoughts on what a good first language would be that would lead to
Ada.

Thank you

Keith Allan Shillington   telesoft!keith@SDCSVAX.ARPA   619/457-2700x388.ATT
			  {ucbvax!sdcsvax,celerity,bang}!telesoft!keith.UUCP
-- 
Keith Allan Shillington   telesoft!keith@SDCSVAX.ARPA   619/457-2700x388.ATT
{ucbvax!sdcsvax,celerity,bang}!telesoft!keith.UUCP