Subject: Re: Teaching Programming
From: rpw3@rigden.engr.sgi.com (Rob Warnock)
Date: 1998/06/11
Newsgroups: comp.programming,comp.lang.scheme,comp.lang.python
Message-ID: <6lneul$uifu@fido.engr.sgi.com>

Dirk Heise <dheise@metronet.de> wrote:
+---------------
| My first programming experience was BASIC in school.
+---------------

As Dijkstra said in his classic 1975 diatribe "How Do We Tell Truths
That Might Hurt?":

	"It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students
	 who have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers
	 they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration."

Of course, he also said:

	"The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore,
	 be regarded as a criminal offense."

and went on to slam FORTRAN, PL/I, APL, and [by implication] Ada.

[Wonder what he thinks of Scheme...?]


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock, 7L-551		rpw3@sgi.com   http://reality.sgi.com/rpw3/
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