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From: jsnyder@uw-june.UUCP (J. R. Snyder)
Newsgroups: soc.college,comp.edu
Subject: Re: First Language Taught in CSC degree track
Message-ID: <2893@uw-june.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 28-Jul-87 23:59:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: uw-june.2893
Posted: Tue Jul 28 23:59:15 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Jul-87 05:18:26 EDT
References: <1472@super.upenn.edu.upenn.edu> <3263@ncoast.UUCP> <1317@sputnik.COM>
Reply-To: jsnyder@uw-june.UUCP (J. R. Snyder)
Organization: U of Washington, Computer Science, Seattle
Lines: 26
Keywords: language, CS 106 track, intro
Xref: mnetor soc.college:789 comp.edu:531

In article <1317@sputnik.COM> talbot@tc.fluke.COM (Todd Smith) writes:
>In article <3263@ncoast.UUCP> rterrell@ncoast.UUCP (Roger Terrell) writes:
>>>Which language should be taught first in the Computer Science
>>>track for incoming freshman?
>>
>>Modula-2 is an excellent language;
>
>Indeed. Rumor has it that, begining this fall, Stanford will begin teaching
>Modula-2 in place of Pascal in it's 'Intro to Software Engineering' courses
>(CS 106A & B). 

The University of Washington made this switch several years ago.

>Why? Because Modula-2 is much better than Pascal when it
>comes to modules and modular programming (In our implementation anyway) and
>these courses (esp. B) are *very* module oriented.

Yup, those are the reasons, among others.  Another way of saying it is that
Modula supports abstract data types better than Pascal.  (So does Ada,
but it's clearly not suitable as a first tongue for many reasons.)


jsnyder@june.cs.washington.edu.arpa         John R. Snyder
{ihnp4,decvax,ucbvax}!uw-beaver!jsnyder     Dept. of Computer Science, FR-35
                                            University of Washington
206/543-7798                                Seattle, WA 98195