Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme
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From: tonyk@world.std.com (Tony J. Kanawati)
Subject: Re: Why Scheme etc. are better first languages to learn than Pascal/C etc.
Message-ID: <D8AtzL.55C@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
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References: <3o3tdp$3mm@ob1.uws.EDU.AU> <leavens.799423759@bambam.cs.iastate.edu> <dlakelan.799802042@las1.iastate.edu> <3olfi5$ctq@steel.interlog.com>
Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 06:57:20 GMT
Lines: 22

I have taught, and assisted in teaching, a number of courses in Pascal and
C.  I find them BAD for beginners (C more than Pascal).  Students are
continuously struggling with compiler obstinacies, tripping over semicolons
and braces, and following random pointers.  At the end of the course, most
know how programs don't work, and little about how they should.  The
situations is aggravated by the near-assembler nature of C.

Scheme has a tractable syntax, especially under Emacs, does not impose
strange compiler-related idiosyncracies; the absence of pointers and the
dark alleys of memory management further simplifies the programming.  The
only thing I miss is strong type checking.  The amount of negative
experience is minimized.

Would someone care to inform us what horrors are taking place where they
teach C++ as a first programming language?
--
"Nondeterminism means never having to say you're sorry".
	-- anonymous (from comp.theory)
-- 
--
Antoun (Tony) Kanawati
tonyk@world.std.com
