Re: Pascal or C as a first lang

[seas.gwu.edu!mfeldman@uunet.uu.net (Michael Feldman)]

In article <CD41oM.1Ln@irvine.com> adam@irvine.com (Adam Beneschan) writes:
>
>Uh, you're missing the point.  The quotes you included aren't about
>"which language is better for programming in", they're about "which
>language is best as a *first* language".  And the one they're most
>likely to be using in the real world is not necessarily the one they
>should be learning first.  Beginning programmers don't even grasp
>basic programming comments that have become second nature to us
>veterans, and I think C would be just too scary for people who know
>virtually nothing about programming.  (Perhaps Mike Feldman or someone
>else with teaching experience can confirm or deny this.)
>
Thanks for the plug and the confidence. One of my favorite maxims is
"C should be everyone's second language and nobody's first language."
If you have access to the SIGCSE quarterly bulletin, have a look in
the Sept. 1991 issue, in which a Prof. Mody of Poona, India has a few
things to say about C as a first language. The best place to discuss
the whole issue of comparing teaching languages is on comp.edu. 

I'm responding here only to say that _nobody_ I'm aware of, who has given
Ada an honest recent try as a teaching language, seems to dislike it.
And many of us like it very much for that purpose. The argument for
C as a teaching language is made mainly on the basis of C's widespread
use in industry, not on its real merits. 

As in most colleges and universities, this is an ongoing debate; it has
always been there and always will be there. Decisions like this are
often made by committee vote. My department's committee votes now and
then. I'll let you know the outcome when and if anything happens...

>Pascal was designed as a teaching language, which I think makes it a
>good choice as a first language.  Ada looks a lot like Pascal, so it
>should be about as good.  Also, I believe both languages tend to
>enforce good programming practices more than C does, which is a
>definite plus for someone who's just learning.

Exactly. To a pretty good approximation, useful for speaking with
Pascal teachers who know no Ada, we can say that Ada has the
language goodies of Turbo Pascal, but it's not proprietary and it's
easy to write portable code in. (Take it from this book author:
portability is REALLY handy :-))

Cheers -

Mike Feldman