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HELP! Must choose language!

Ken Starks straton at lampsacos.demon.co.uk
Mon Dec 30 14:35:13 EST 2002 
In article <87isxbxtin.fsf at gvdnet.dk>, Martin Christensen
<knightsofspamalot-factotum at gvdnet.dk> quotes Nick:
>Nick> I'm just not convinced that _any_ programming language can
>Nick> really teach the discipline of solving the problem before a line
>Nick> of code is written.

I once ran a computer club for ten and eleven year-olds. One day, after
a boy had been 'learning programming' (his phrase) for 50 minutes, a
visitor asked him what language he used.
Looking sheepishly at me, he replied, "....er, pseudocode ???".

A good guess, I thought. I was quite proud of it in a way.

I deliberately used to emphasise programming, and de-emphasise coding.
The standard aimed at was similar to Guido's 'tutorial introduction' to 
python, but I didn't know python in those days. Children of that age
commonly reach a ceiling in their programming skills because their
Mathematical development. That is just one reason why breadth is
preferable to depth.

In succeeding terms, I used Forth, Basic, and Prolog, selected for their
contrast and for different favoured Data-structures.

I also recommended pseudocode and other proper programming 
disciplines such as a 'specification' and 'test suite' when 
designing a spreadsheet.







-- 
Ken Starks
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