From: Thomas.Kendelbacher@erno.de (Thomas Kendelbacher)
Subject: Re: Choosing C++ instead of Ada
Date: 1996/10/28
Date: 1996-10-28T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <55218t$l5r@mailsrv2.erno.de> (raw)
In-Reply-To: mheaney-ya023180002710961051200001@news.ni.net
In article <mheaney-ya023180002710961051200001@news.ni.net>, mheaney@ni.net (Matthew Heaney) writes:
>Has anyone seen this web page:
>
><http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/publications/books/apprentice/InstructorsManual/C++
>_Choice.html>
>
>Two professors from England explain why they teach C++ as a first-year
>language, instead of teaching Ada or Eiffel or Modula-2 etc. Since their
>charts list Ada as lacking support for object-oriented programming, perhaps
>they don't realize there's a new Ada standard (not to mention free
>compilers) that does.
>
>Pedagogues: any comments about the paper?
Just FYI: The October issue (#5/96) of "Informatik-Spektrum", the official
journal of the Gesellschaft fuer Informatik (German computer science association)
contains an article where some Profs. describe their programming curriculum
which consists _only_ of C++, although they list its teaching disadvantages
in their article (taking too much time to teach low-level details instead
of general programming concepts, due to complex/cryptic syntax etc.)
One of their main reasons why they choose C++ over Eiffel, Ada etc. is:
They intend to confront the students with the "'dark side' of programming"
(verbatim!) to better prepare them for reality.
Now, how do pedagogues comment on this?
To give you a correct picture: This is not the programming curriculum for
university students of computer science, but for a so-called "Fachhochschule",
which, in the German education system, is a special school/college which
provides only a degree somewhat below a bachelors degree. They don't have
very much time for programming courses in their curriculum; it's even tight
for the basics of a single programming language.
Regarding the article: I couldn't disagree more to most of it. But there is
one sentence in it which deserves a second thought: The students are said to be
"highly motivated" because they jump at C++ after all the hype they've heard
and read about it. Given that they can learn just a single language at school,
they assume that they will "need" C++ to get a job; maybe they are not even
that wrong, the way things are.
--
Thomas Kendelbacher | email : Thomas.Kendelbacher@erno.de (preferred)
DASA RI / Abt. RIT14 | voice : +49 421 539 5492 (working hours)
Postfach 28 61 56 | or : +49 421 576 9670 (any other time)
D-28361 Bremen | fax : +49 421 539 4529 (any time)
Germany
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1996-10-28 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 39+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1996-10-09 0:00 What is Ada used for??? Sean Roehnelt
[not found] ` <AE817A13-1E0BE@206.107.67.30>
1996-10-09 0:00 ` Michael Feldman
1996-10-21 0:00 ` Jin Xue Kuang
1996-10-15 0:00 ` Richard A. O'Keefe
1996-10-09 0:00 ` Aron Felix Gurski
1996-10-09 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-10 0:00 ` Jason Smith
1996-10-10 0:00 ` Robert S. White
1996-10-20 0:00 ` Choosing C++ instead of Ada (was What is Ada used for?) Richard Riehle
1996-10-21 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1996-10-21 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-22 0:00 ` whiting_ms@corning.com (Matt Whiting)
1996-10-22 0:00 ` Choosing C++ instead of Ada Stanley R. Allen
1996-10-24 0:00 ` William Clodius
1996-10-25 0:00 ` Poutanen Olavi
1996-10-25 0:00 ` jim hopper
1996-10-25 0:00 ` Andrew Dunstan
1996-10-25 0:00 ` John DiCamillo
1996-10-25 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1996-10-26 0:00 ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-27 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1996-10-28 0:00 ` David Emery
1996-10-28 0:00 ` Rush Kester
1996-10-30 0:00 ` Ed Falis
1996-10-28 0:00 ` Thomas Kendelbacher [this message]
1996-10-31 0:00 ` Richard A. O'Keefe
1996-11-04 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-30 0:00 ` David Emery
1996-10-28 0:00 ` Poutanen Olavi
1996-10-25 0:00 ` Choosing C++ instead of Ada (was What is Ada used for?) Kazimir Majorinc
1996-10-21 0:00 ` Robert B. Love
1996-10-24 0:00 ` Richard Riehle
1996-10-10 0:00 ` What is Ada used for??? Robert S. White
1996-10-10 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
1996-10-25 0:00 ` Choosing C++ instead of Ada (was What is Ada used for?) Robert I. Eachus
1996-10-26 0:00 ` Choosing C++ instead of Ada Robert I. Eachus
1996-10-29 0:00 ` Jon S Anthony
1996-10-30 0:00 ` Arlene S. Felton
1996-11-04 0:00 ` nasser
replies disabled
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox