NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/comp/programm/2403

Internet Message Format | 1992-08-20 | 2.7 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Andrew Sterian)
Newsgroups: comp.programming
Subject: Re: Teaching the basics
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 20 Aug 92 16:42:09 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <12635@anderson> <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (David Ratner) writes:
>I most wholeheartedly agree.  At Cornell, where I did my undergrad,
>the first two computer programming classes are both taught in Pascal,
>both because Pascal is a more structured langauge than C (the compiler
>complains much more often and is more strict than a C-compiler), and
>because I feel it is "easier" as a introductory language, primarily
>because of the difficulty in C with pointers.  Introductory students
>have enough to worry about without having to learn about pointers
>right off.  In C it just isn't that practical to do anything complicated
>without using pointers.

Hmmmm...I disagree on this one. It may have been true some years ago that
the type checking etc. of Pascal made it easier on novice programmers but
the latest ANSI C compilers do just as good a job of it as Pascal. I also
don't feel it is a good idea to shield novice programmers from pointers. They
will just end up with a "pointer phobia" and will find it hard to pick them
up later on.

>Another reason to use Pascal.  C has the wonderful feature that you can write
>incredibly obtuse code, and while it is possible to teach good coding
>practices in C, I would argue that it is easier in a more structured
>language like Pascal.

Trust me, you can write incredibly obtuse code in Pascal. Writing clear
code should be part of any beginning programming course. I also don't see
how it is easier to *teach* good coding practices in Pascal. A good teacher
can teach good coding practices in any language.

I didn't post this to start a Pascal vs. C holy war. In my experience,
however, being forced to program in Pascal for my introductory courses
(waaay back) was a frustrating experience. It was even worse because at the
time we were forced to use a context-sensitive editor ("Alice") which
enforced the Pascal syntax as you were editing. It was supposed to help
you learn the language in that it was impossible for you to create a
program which had syntax errors. It was a nightmare.

Andrew.
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