From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Received: by 2002:a02:90c3:: with SMTP id c3-v6mr10427349jag.62.1530555760240; Mon, 02 Jul 2018 11:22:40 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 2002:aca:8d2:: with SMTP id 201-v6mr2920714oii.0.1530555760010; Mon, 02 Jul 2018 11:22:40 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!weretis.net!feeder4.news.weretis.net!feeds.phibee-telecom.net!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed8.news.xs4all.nl!85.12.16.69.MISMATCH!peer02.ams1!peer.ams1.xlned.com!news.xlned.com!peer02.am4!peer.am4.highwinds-media.com!peer01.iad!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!d7-v6no3239766itj.0!news-out.google.com!z3-v6ni2747iti.0!nntp.google.com!d7-v6no3239762itj.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2018 11:22:39 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=213.108.152.51; posting-account=bMuEOQoAAACUUr_ghL3RBIi5neBZ5w_S NNTP-Posting-Host: 213.108.152.51 References: <856189aa-fa00-4960-929e-174f352310ad@googlegroups.com> User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Teaching C/C++ from Ada perspective? From: Maciej Sobczak Injection-Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2018 18:22:40 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Received-Bytes: 2719 X-Received-Body-CRC: 619543885 Xref: reader02.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:53515 Date: 2018-07-02T11:22:39-07:00 List-Id: > The course is too start with Algorithms first and then end with programmi= ng. [...] Go ahead with introducing both at the same time. You need some form of "language" anyway, to present the algorithms precisel= y, so hand-waving is not sufficient. If you decide to use some pseudocode t= hat students will not be able to execute, then you might as well use a lang= uage that is actually executable. Introduce language features as you need t= hem for the progressively more complex algorithms. It works the other way round, too. If you teach a language, you need some m= otivating use cases to drive the teaching so that the programs actually do = something useful and involving. It might be algorithms. Introduce more algo= rithms as enabled by progressively more complete language presentation. In short, teaching one without the other (or in sequence, in any order) is = counterproductive. BTW - you can safely assume that the majority of your students have already= coded something. This used to be different some decades ago, but nowadays = kids are learning basic coding skills in primary schools. You can easily bu= ild on that; teaching algorithms without touching actual programming has no= justification. --=20 Maciej Sobczak * http://www.inspirel.com