On Sun, 13 Jul 2003, Mark A. Hershberger wrote:
> Beginners should be given a language that automatically manages
> memory. This excludes C and C++. (Otherwise, they'll spend most of
> their time figuring out all the core dumps.)
My post was mostly meant to further the language discussion going on here.
I also wanted to get opinions of professional programmers on the subject
of a beginner language.
The main reason I brought it up was that when I was in school, SLU was
teaching PASCAL as their beginning language then, when I got to my upper
level classes they switched to C, which really messed me up. Now this
coming fall, I think, they're switching to Java.
I'm pretty disappointed in this move. In my opinion it seems that it
would benefit freshmen to learn a fundamental language like C or C++.
But then it's hard for me to say since I don't program on a daily basis.
The choice is being made by men who've been in the programming biz since
the late 60's. But they've been teach for the past 20 years and in my
opinion don't really know what the best language of the day is.
Also this is a group of professors that barely know how to use Windows,
let alone run their own Linux workstation.
I think the decision is based on a few different factors. One being that
it's easier for them to teach Java than C or C++. Another reason is that
it's a political move by faculty at the University, because that is the
language that they think is the industry standard.
BB
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Received on 07/13/03
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