[plug] programming

[Bret Busby]

On Thu, 18 Sep 2003, Ben New wrote:

> 
> Btw, these 2 languages are both taught at Murdoch in first year CS 
> subjects, so someone else must agree they are good for beginners ;-)  
> 

The logic does not hold up; another university taught Ada as its first 
computing language, but that does not make it "good for beginners", or 
good for other things. Murdoch also taught Modula-2 as its first 
language, at one stage.

The teaching of computing languages is faddish - what is taught, depends 
only on the current fad, and Java is only more of a 4GL than C++, 
without either I/O formatting or low-level functionality, and, C++ does 
not have low-level I/O, soch as open, creat, etc, apart from lacking I/O 
formatting, which is why c++ needs a C compiler to run on.

Oh, and the standard of teaching beginners programming at Murdoch, is 
not as good as it should be. The standard of teaching beginners 
programming at TAFE, in the 1980's, when TAFE in WA was a serious 
teaching institution, was far superior. But, now, TAFE in WA is not much 
more than a kindergarten.

"And what is good, and what is not good - do we need another to tell 
us?"
- Socrates, in the dialogue Phaedrus, by Plato

"Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
-Shakespeare

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
  Chapter 28 of 
  "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
  A Trilogy In Four Parts",
  written by Douglas Adams, 
  published by Pan Books, 1992 
....................................................

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