Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!bbn!apple!claris!krazy
From: krazy@claris.com (Jeff Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: early comp sci courses
Message-ID: <9139@claris.com>
Date: 22 Mar 89 19:03:15 GMT
References: <8903201740.aa10711@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>
Organization: Claris Corporation, Mountain View CA
Lines: 24

>>From:         David Douthitt
>>
>>Where I'm going to school, Programming I (ONE) is Assembler.  THEN in
>>Programming II you get to learn COBOL.  (Ok, so it's ugly... I'll
>>survive it!)  A while back, on which group I forget, there was a lot
>>of discussion whether Assembly should be taught first or second
>>semester.  I don't recall anyone NOT recommending we teach it.

At Rice the current curriculum is two semesters of Pascal, one semester
combined C/68000 assembly, one semester of Modula-2, in that order.  That's
JUST the programming classes. 

Assembly most certainly should NOT be first.  But that's my opinion -- I'm a
top-down programmer.  I tea the problem apart before I even attempt to
prgram it, and assembly requires me to tear it down too far.  (I'd probably
teach LISP first semester, believe it or not.)

No!  Not COBOL!  Run away!  Run away!  AAAAAAAaaaaaauuuuugggggghhhhh!!!!!
 
-- 
Jeff Erickson     \  Internet: krazy@claris.com          AppleLink: Erickson4
Claris Corporation \      UUCP: {ames,apple,portal,sun,voder}!claris!krazy
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____________________/        "I'm so heppy I'm mizzabil!" -- Krazy Kat