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From: bowles@eris.berkeley.edu (Jeff A. Bowles)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Using C for the First Programming Course
Message-ID: <23247@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 18 Apr 89 13:57:05 GMT
References: <2800@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <536@fallst.UUCP> <41@wells.UUCP>
Distribution: all
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
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In article <41@wells.UUCP> edw@wells.UUCP (Ed Wells) writes:
>
>  You gotta be kidding.  Your instructor sounds to me like he is doing
>a 'fake it until you make it' in the way he is teaching 'C'.  I think
>if you knew 'C' well as many of us do, you will find that there is a
>very formal format to 'C'.  Maybe your instructor ought to sit in on
>another instructors 'C' class before resuming his own 'C' classes.
>He obviously doesn't sound like he know 'C'.

I didn't see the article this is in reference to, but feel the need to
point out something important:

If the intent of a class is to teach programming, that is, to teach
problem-solving using a computer language, then it doesn't MATTER
how other courses teach the language. What matters is that one learns
how to organize the problem so that it can be solved efficiently using
a computer. It is nice to be somewhat complete in your approach to whatever
language you're using, but not entirely necessary.

If the intent of a class is to teach a programming language, it shouldn't
be the first class in computers a student takes. The content of the class
would be different (probably) that one which tries to teach programming.
(And a class centered around teaching a language, doesn't that belong in
a trade school?)

Nuff said. I think this is in the trailing part of the discussion anyhow....

	Jeff Bowles

learns how to organize