On 12/14/2010 03:53 PM, Cédric Beust ♔ wrote:
On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 4:40 AM, Kevin Wright
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Java on the other hand... Its interest nowadays is purely
vocational, there's nothing Java can offer from an educational
perspective that isn't best served with some other language.
I disagree, I think it's currently the best "generic" language that
you can teach in school. By "generic", I mean for classes that are not
trying to teach a specific language, such as algorithmic or other CS
related courses. Java is object oriented, has a simple syntax, tons of
frameworks and material available on the web. In other words, it's the
kind of language that is going to let students focus on everything
else but the language itself. It's perfect to teach the "engineering"
part of "software engineering", where students can team up for months
long projects, learn how to work together, to debug and write code
that does something interesting.
Of course, I still think that specialized languages such as Haskell or
Lisp should get their share of classes in a well rounded education.
Of course, I both agree that Java is the best general purpose language,
also for teaching, and that many languages should be taught. I was just
referring to the first one.
PS Pascal? Not, by any means! It was the first language I've been taught
at the university (BTW, the "original" Pascal by Wirth, mostly a
theoretic exam, with no references to Turbo Pascal or any other concrete
language - which BTW I was already using for earning money at the time).
One of the pretty useless exams I've passed. I'd have no objections if
Pascal was taught as the "other" languages, but since you must put a
limit, there are many much more interesting than it.
--
Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager
Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere."
java.net/blog/fabriziogiudici - www.tidalwave.it/people
[email protected]
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