Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!imagine!pawl18.pawl.rpi.edu!jefu
From: jefu@pawl18.pawl.rpi.edu (Jeffrey Putnam)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: What is CS? (Was re First languages)
Message-ID: <612@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>
Date: 4 Apr 88 11:40:58 GMT
References: <3684@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <568@abcom.ATT.COM> <607@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU> <4859@ecsvax.UUCP>
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Reply-To: jefu@pawl18.pawl.rpi.edu (Jeffrey Putnam)
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In article <4859@ecsvax.UUCP> hes@ecsvax.UUCP (Henry Schaffer) writes:
>In article <607@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>, jefu@pawl23.pawl.rpi.edu (Jeffrey Putnam) writes:
>> ...
>> But then, i am coming to believe that a programming course should be
>> required of _all_ students - including humanities students and all. 
>> Computers are increasingly common in all disciplines and workplaces and
>> a good programming course is the best way to understand the problems and
>> advantages of computer use.




>                 ... Would it make sense for the "programming" for
>students in the business curriculum to use a spreadsheet as its
>language?  I've always wanted to teach a programming course to students
>in the humanities and use SNOBOL4 as the language (maybe I would want
>to use ICON today.)  I've never had the opportunity - but I think it
>would be fascinating to see if students who were motivated by natural
>languages and the manipulation of words would respond to a computer
>language which facilitated such uses.

>  Does teaching students to use a spreadsheet or a math manipulator
>(e.g. TK-solver or MathCad, ...) meet your requirement for what 
>teaching programming is supposed to do?

I dont think so - though i have certainly considered it.  I would
not favor spreadsheets or math programs for a couple reasons.  First,
these programs are in fairly general use and it is likely that people
will use them at some point naturally, and i believe it is a good idea
to expose them to something that they might not normally see.  But 
more fundamentally, i would prefer a "real" programming language as 
it is an opportunity not just to teach programming, but to teach something
about the way computers work, the way programmers work, the way
algorithms are described and implemented, and how they can use this
stuff to actually build programs that will solve problems they might
encounter.  

I was thinking of either a lisp family language (to minimize syntax
woes) or something like ICON but with graphics extensions.  I would
focus on graphics (given an appropriate system) or string processing -
primarily non-mathematical stuff to ease math anxiety.  Graphics, 
even given math anxiety, would be nice because you can _see_ what
is going on and there are some interesting things to do that are
quite accessible.  String processing is of fairly general interest
as it doesnt involve math and there are some fun problems that
are also accessible.


jeff putnam  
{jefu%pawl -or- jeff_putnam%rpitsmts}@itsgw.rpi.edu
"People would rather believe a simple lie than the complex truth."