Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mcvax!ukc!its63b!csrdi
From: csrdi@its63b.ed.ac.uk (Janet: rick@uk.ac.ed)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Re: First Languages (yet again)
Message-ID: <975@its63b.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 10 Feb 88 15:41:06 GMT
References: <4022@ames.arpa> <2400002@otter.HP.COM> <932@its63b.ed.ac.uk> <2781@omepd>
Reply-To: csrdi@itspna (R.Innis)
Organization: University of Edinburgh
Lines: 44

In article <2781@omepd> pcm@iwarpo3.UUCP (Phil C. Miller) writes:
>> RDI@uk.ac.ed.ecsvax (ME!) writes:
>> [my comments about shifting to ML as a first language]
>
>This is a really interesting movement you're discussing..[deleted]..So
>far, the only context in which I have seen ML is the university
>environment.
>
It seems the Ministry of Defence are now asking for programs specs to be
written in ML. Pity the programs then have to be written in ADA.(spit)

It seems the movement is now towards Modula-2 as a first teaching language,
but ML will continue to be taught in first year, in the second half of the
course. 
>
>> [My comments about learning ML and Prolog affecting programming style] 
>
>Part of the reasoning behind a technical education should be to prepare
>a student for the working experience.  I contend that exposing
>first-year students to a functional programming language does not fit
>that role.

A friend of mine commented in reply to my earlier message that it's another
application of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis - a language that doesn't affect the
way you think about prgramming isn't worth knowing.  My contention is that if
you can't learn from something different you are sadly lacking somewhere.

As for preparing students for the working experience, wasn't that discussed
here last year too? If you know *how* to learn then you can do almost
anything within your own limits. Sadly, too many universities (this one
included) take the view that they are here to turn out people with vocational
qualifications rather than an ability to perceive and learn. Putting it
another way, universities are places for getting a degree, not an education.
(I'll leave this track before I start getting political, as I know who I blame
for this state of affairs.)

	--Rick.
-- 
Janet: rick@uk.ac.ed
BITNET: rick%uk.ac.ed@UKACRL
ARPA: rick@ed.ac.uk
UUCP: rick%uk.ac.ed%ukc@mcvax

"Life would be so much easier if everyone read the manual."