From: demer@hc17031.hcsd.ca (David Emery)
Subject: Re: Choosing C++ instead of Ada
Date: 1996/10/28
Date: 1996-10-28T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <c4ohhnm298.fsf@hc17031.hcsd.ca> (raw)
In-Reply-To: mheaney-ya023180002710961051200001@news.ni.net
Thomas said:
>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.
Popularity is hardly a good criterion for teaching -anything-. The CS1
language (or its equivalent) should be chosen for its educational advantage,
and not because some kid somewhere read that it was helpful for getting
a job this week. Besides, it looks like Java is replacing C++ in the
"popularity charts"; students who spend a lot of time learning C++ without
learning the underlying programming are likely to be unpleasantly surprised
when there are no C++ jobs available when they graduate in 4 years...
Incidentally, my friends in academia say that there's a big rush towards
Java for teaching, as being both "politically correct" and substantially
better than C++ for teaching. I'd much rather have a Java-trained programmer
than a C++ programmer; it's my observation that the primary skill you learn
as a C++ programmer is working with a debugger :-)
dave
--
<.sig is away on vacation>
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
1996-10-09 0:00 ` Aron Felix Gurski
1996-10-09 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-10 0:00 ` Robert S. White
1996-10-10 0:00 ` Larry Kilgallen
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 ` Larry Kilgallen
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
1996-10-26 0:00 ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-27 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1996-10-28 0:00 ` David Emery [this message]
1996-10-28 0:00 ` Rush Kester
1996-10-30 0:00 ` Ed Falis
1996-10-28 0:00 ` Thomas Kendelbacher
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
[not found] ` <AE817A13-1E0BE@206.107.67.30>
1996-10-09 0:00 ` What is Ada used for??? Michael Feldman
1996-10-21 0:00 ` Jin Xue Kuang
1996-10-15 0:00 ` Richard A. O'Keefe
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
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