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From: dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)
Subject: Re: Do college AP tests require C++ knowledge?
Date: 1997/12/10
Message-ID: <dewar.881803832@merv>#1/1
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Date: 1997-12-10T00:00:00+00:00
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<<  My son graduated in June from what's supposed to be the best private
college prep high school in Santa Clara CA (ie, Silicon Valley).  Their
CS courses were in Pascal using Turbo-Pascal on their DOS 286s.
>>

But these days, when you can buy a perfectly good 486 machine for $300
(I know, I bought a brand new one for this price 12 months ago), it is
pretty absurd for people to be struggling with 286's. Yes, there may
be all sorts of reasons, but that does not stop it being absurd.

P.S. GNAT will run just fine on a 386SX. You may not be able to use fpt,
if you don't have a coprocessor, but so what, there is absolutely no need
to teach fpt at that level, and indeed there are good arguments for not
doing so!