[comp.edu] Learning and using computer languages

andy@rocky.STANFORD.EDU (Andy Freeman) (07/19/87)

I'm not sure it matters which decent language is used in the
first class, as long as it isn't used in the second, and so on.
When I was an undergrad (at Stanford, I "can't" get in anywhere
else) I used a different language in each of my first 7-10 classes.
(Only one of these, a languages course, used more than one language,
and I had used most of the languages surveyed before I took it.  All
of them required substantial programming.  I didn't do a lot of APL
programming but otherwise the languages I used came from all of the
major types at that time; Smalltalk and Prolog didn't exist then,
but I've used the latter extensively.)  I didn't learn how to
program/debug in x, I learned how to program.  I can choose the
appropriate language to solve a given problem; if I don't know
it, I know that I can learn it quickly.

I wish that I'd have learned Scheme and Icon earlier.  My ideal
"teach programming and computer science" program would teach
both as first languages and then use languages that fit the
problems being solved.  The goal of the latter is to teach
people why different languages exist.

-andy
-- 
Andy Freeman
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