Re: [TCLUG:13004] AP Comp. Sci.

[Troy Johnson <john1536@tc.umn.edu>]

Nick.T.Reinking@supervalu.com wrote:
> 
> Scheme?  Java is fairly easy to learn, *and* it is actually used
> for things other than education.  This is the some reason why it
> bothers me that people try to shove Pascel down the throats
> of poor programming students.  (Not that Object Pascal can't be
> cool...)
> 
> Scheme is what happens when you take an interesting concept
> too far.  Why not teach the poor students LISP?  At least they could
> work on Emacs with that.
> 
> Scheme.  It's Funny.  Laugh.

Nick,

I honestly think Scheme, _because_ it is an interesting concept taken
too far, has some excellent lessons for beginning programming students.
Just don't ask me what they are (too long ago).

On the other hand, I think that given some extra effort in the "lesson
plan" and "environment setup" department, many languages (including C++)
can be used as a first learning language. The added benefit of being
able to do "real" programming in a "real" and "modern" language can be
quite a boost for students (it was for me, but the quotes are there for
a reason).

But this means more work for teachers, and so _should_ mean more money
for teachers (it is simply amazing how many people miss this connection
(more work is worth more money)). So, it is really kind of a question
regarding "how much effort will it take to teach programming concepts A,
B, and C in language X, Y, or Z".

Good luck, Tim. This is interesting info (I think), so please keep us
updated.

Troy