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From: jmcclain@photoplod.lads-camb.loral.com (John W.F. McClain)
Subject: Why Scheme for into CS [was Re: Why you should not use Tcl]
In-Reply-To: etxmesa@eos.ericsson.se's message of 27 Sep 1994 12:23:15 GMT
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References: <9409232314.AA29957@mole.gnu.ai.mit.edu>
	 <367307$1un@engnews2.eng.sun.com>
	<367qen$500@tadpole.fc.hp.com> <3690p3$6ra@idefix.CS.kuleuven.ac.be>
	<3692rj$99m@erinews.ericsson.se>
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 01:25:03 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu gnu.misc.discuss:18433 comp.lang.tcl:19472 comp.lang.scheme:10026 comp.unix.misc:15911 comp.windows.x.apps:7946

In article <3692rj$99m@erinews.ericsson.se> etxmesa@eos.ericsson.se (Michael Salmon) writes:

   dirkd@cs.kuleuven.ac.be (Dirk Dussart) writes:
   |> In article <367qen$500@tadpole.fc.hp.com>
   |>  subbarao@concorde.fc.hp.com (Kartik Subbarao) writes:
   |>
   |> |> What saddens me even more is that they teach Scheme to
   |> |> introductory CS students at MIT, rather than the more
   |> |> practical C.
   |>
   |> Calling C a practical language is the biggest overstatement of the
   |> year. C is the worst thing after COBOL and FORTRAN that could
   |> have happened to Computer Science. The popularity of C and C--
   |> is setting Computer Science back for many years.

   Computer Science perhaps, but programming? BTW aren't functional and
   logical language more politically correct than Scheme these days?

But this is exactly what makes Scheme great for intro programming
classes.  If you look at _Structure_&_Interpretation_of_Computer_
Programs_, (the text used in MIT's intro CS class) it covers
functional and logic programming styles (and objected oriented, and
assembly...)  Few languages are flexible enough to cover this much
ground is a semester long course.

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John W.F. McClain		    Loral Advanced Distributed Simulation
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