help with survey

help with survey

[Duane Crawford]

        My name is Duane Crawford, and I am a McNair Scholar at UMBC.  I
am a computer science major currently working on a research project to
find out which computer programming language is most appropriate for
beginning computer science majors.  I would like to know if you can spare
a couple of minutes to help me with my survey on computer programming
languages.  Can you answer the following questions and send them back to
me(dcrawf3@gl.umbc.edu) with your comments added. Please forward this
message to anyone who could help. 

1.  What programming language do you feel should be taught to first year
    computer science majors? 

    [ ] C [ ] Pascal [ ] ML [ ] Fortran
    [ ] C++ [ ] Lisp/Scheme [ ] Modula-2 [ ] Smalltalk
    [ ] Java [ ] Ada [ ] Modula-3 [ ] COBOL
    [ ] APL [ ] BASIC [ ] Prolog [ ] PL/1
    [ ] Other __________________________________________
    If your answer is other please fill in the blank. 

2.  Why have you chosen this programming language? 

3.  Your chosen language(s) textbooks are _________. 
    [ ] above average
    [ ] average
    [ ] below average

4.  Your chosen language is simple. 
    [ ] True [ ] False

5.  Your chosen language is practical (everyone uses it). 

6.  What programming languages do you have experience with? 

7.  What is your occupation (student, professor, work at a company, etc) 
and
    where? 

8.  What programming language were you first introduced to? 

9.  The textbook you used to learn this language was? 
    [ ] above average
    [ ] average
    [ ] below average
	  
10. What is the introductory programming language at your current and/or
    previous institution? 

                                                Thanks for your time,
                                                        Duane

Re: help with survey

[Joerg Rodemann]

Duane sent us a little form for his survey on introductory programming
languages. I think he should revise his form a bit because it leaves some
statements quite unclear.

Duane Crawford (dcrawf3@gl.umbc.edu) wrote:
> 3.  Your chosen language(s) textbooks are _________. 
>     [ ] above average
>     [ ] average
>     [ ] below average

What criterium do you want us to use for this ranking? Level (beginner, 
medium, professional)? Quality (as far as one can judge on this in a
not subjective way...)?

> 5.  Your chosen language is practical (everyone uses it). 
                              ^^^^^^^^^
At least you tell us what you mean by practical. From a logical standpoint
I might say: NO --- whatever language you choose since for sure there are
some people who do not use the chosen language.  ;-> I guess your assumed
answer is 'NO' for all other languages besides C/C++...although there 
certainly are a lot of people with a different opinion.

Greetings

Joerg

--
rodemann@mathematik.uni-ulm.de | Dipl.-Phys. Joerg S. Rodemann
Phone: ++49-(0)711-5090670     | Flurstrasse 21, D-70372 Stuttgart, Germany
-----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
rodemann@rus.uni-stuttgart.de  | University of Stuttgart, Computing Center
Phone: ++49-(0)711-685-5815    | Visualization Department, Office: 0.304
Fax:   ++49-(0)711-678-7626    | Allmandring 30a, D-70550 Stuttgart, Germany

Re: help with survey

[Wes Groleau]

> Duane Crawford (dcrawf3@gl.umbc.edu) wrote:
> > 3.  Your chosen language(s) textbooks are _________.
> >     [ ] above average
> >     [ ] average
> >     [ ] below average
 
Joerg Rodemann wrote:
> What criterium do you want us to use for this ranking? Level (beginner,
> medium, professional)? Quality (as far as one can judge on this in a
> not subjective way...)?

Doesn't matter.  For every language I know anything about, the answer
is "all of the above".  

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Re: help with survey

[Robert Dewar]

Joerg says

<<> 5.  Your chosen language is practical (everyone uses it).
                              ^^^^^^^^^
At least you tell us what you mean by practical. From a logical standpoint
I might say: NO --- whatever language you choose since for sure there are
some people who do not use the chosen language.  ;-> I guess your assumed
answer is 'NO' for all other languages besides C/C++...although there
certainly are a lot of people with a different opinion.
>>


Of course it is not a bit true that "everyone" uses C/C++. The only language
that might vaguely legitimately rate a yes is visual basic.

The trouble with a question like this is that it invites people to answer
from their predjudices rather than from knowledge. FOr example, in our
department, all the faculty "know" that "everyone" uses C++ (but soon
"everyone" will use Java), and "no one" uses Pascal.

The facts: for PC development, 60% is done in Visual Basic, 13% in C/C++
and 5% in Pascal (= at this stage Delphi). These figures come from a
supposedly independent survey that Bill Gates recently quoted. Of course
any such survey is always a bit suspect, but let's just say that it was
not a survey done by random questions to newsgroups on the net (it really
is appalling to see these surveys being done in such an obviously invalid
manner by students all over the place -- you can bet that the results of
these bogus surveys will soon enough become received fact). Bill Gates
was a little surprised at the 5% figure for Delphi (thought it was a bit
high), but the ratio of VB to C++ sounds reasonable (VB is a much preferable
tool for many purposes, and is in some respects a superior language to C++).