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From: molnard1@nevada.edu (DAVID A MOLNAR)
Subject: Re: What's the best language to learn? [was Re: Should I learn C or
 Pascal?]
Date: 1996/08/15
Message-ID: <4v0bo7$21a@news.nevada.edu>#1/1
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Date: 1996-08-15T00:00:00+00:00
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Peter Seebach (seebs@solutions.solon.com) wrote:
: Still, why wouldn't, say, scheme, work for this?  You can make a *VERY*
: simple system - much simpler than assembly for any platform - and show
: the students how everything is built on it.
: 
: If all you want to do is show them that the computer is simple, teach them
: in Turing machine assembly.  :)
	This reminds me of another point from a previous "CS1 education" 
thread I saw about a year ago. A teacher had designed his course 
around a virtual machine of sorts designed to act as a warm and fuzzy way 
to tackle concepts without having to worry about the pitfalls and 
idiosyncransies (sp?) of a "real" platform. Unfortunately, the students 
complained that they "weren't learning anything USEFUL". They regarded 
learning CS on a machine that was not used in business (and never would 
be!) as a sort of "waste". Result : poor student performance, and an 
eventual migration to Windows 3.1, which the students enjoyed, but the 
instructor was somewhat less satisfied with.