Re: Pascal or C as a first lang

[JD3GTRCW.TRANSCOM@transcom.safb.af.mil (CONROY WILLIAM F)]

In article <1993Sep08.003727.36807@source.asset.com> 
tannend@source.asset.com (David Tannen) writes:

   Since this thread won't go away, I thought I would throw
   out some information from a recent Dr. Dobbs Journal (DDJ#203).

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   Wirth:  "He refrained from criticizing C, however, until the 
   closing panel, where he said that 'hacking is in' and claimed,
   that 'most programmers enjoy working by trial and error.'  
   Looking at Ritchie, who was sitting next to him, Wirth continued:
   'The most important promoter of this trend:  C.'  He said that
   languages such as C are useful for bootstrapping software onto
   a new machine, but their use should be only 'temporary'."

   "Ritchie, ..., noted that Wirth's points were 'well-taken' and
   acknowledged that 'it is possible to use C in a better way than
   people do.'"

   "In his earlier talk on C, Richie actually said good things about
   Pascal, even admitting that Pascal is 'elegant'."

   "What should students learn as a first programming language?  
   Many colleges are beginning to teach C as a first language.  Ritchie
   didn't endorse this trend.  Any approach tat tends to produce 
   dependence on a particular language is bad, he said, suggesting that
   Scheme might be a good choice.  ... Wirth asked 'Are you teaching
   a skill or [providing] general education?'  In the former case,
   he recommended Ada; in the latter, he advised using 'a simpler
   language' - but not C.  'I view the landslide of C use in education
   as rather a calamity,' he said."

I hate to offend the masters, but I have to wonder what world they are
living in. Ada? Who uses Ada? The question of which language is better
for programming in is not really as important as which language is
more commonly used. No college grad is going to get a job programming
in Ada (or at least very few are). But C is everywhere. Furthermore,
who has access to an Ada compiler? You can get free C compilers (or
damn cheap ones) for any machine. So which is going to be more useful
to a college student? Which is going to be more useful to someone
looking for a job? Obviously C!

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   Edward Hartnett	             ejh@twod.gsfc.nasa.gov
                                        (301) 286-2396