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From: deb@gt-cmmsr.UUCP (Deborah Jackson)
Newsgroups: net.lang.pascal,net.college
Subject: Re: pascal ass intro. language
Message-ID: <139@gt-cmmsr.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Feb-86 22:39:34 EST
Article-I.D.: gt-cmmsr.139
Posted: Fri Feb 21 22:39:34 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Feb-86 21:09:50 EST
References: <109@polyob.UUCP> <247@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Reply-To: deb@gt-cmmsr.UUCP (Deborah Jackson)
Distribution: net
Organization: Center for Man-Machine Systems Research - Ga Tech
Lines: 34
Xref: linus net.lang.pascal:472 net.college:1096

In article <247@mit-eddie.UUCP> jbs@eddie.UUCP (Jeff Siegal) writes:
>In article <109@polyob.UUCP> hgoldber@polyob.UUCP (A1 harry goldberg ) writes:
>>*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***
>>am interested to hear pros and conss about using pascal as the 
>>language in which to teach introductory programming
>
>Jeff Siegal - MIT EECS writes:

>Instead, teach general techniques of good software development
>(design, modularity, documentation, etc.).  

***** BRAVO!! ******
>
>For a new (I think) idea in progressive teaching, how about using 3
>or 4 languages, and allowing students to use whichever one they feel
>most comfortable with (for projects and exam questions, etc.).
>

The main problem with using multiple languages in an intro course is time.
By forcing too many languages at the students the general principals of
software development get lost because the students end up spending far
too much time trying to learn the syntax and semantics of each language.

The other problem is that throwing more than a couple languages at intro
students tends to confuse them...Not to mention the headaches the poor 
graders would have! 

-- 
_______
Deborah J. Jackson
Georgia Tech, School of Electrical Engineering, Atlanta, GA 30332
(404)894-3058
uucp:  ...!{akgua,allegra,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ulysses}!gatech!gt-eedsp!deb
                                                                 ^^^^^