From: "u.r. faust" <urfaust@optushome.com.au>
Subject: Re: Why is Ada a good choice for an ambitious beginner to programming
Date: 11 Jan 2003 09:47:49 -0800
Date: 2003-01-11T09:47:49-08:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <lm1rshmi.fsf@optushome.com.au> (raw)
In-Reply-To: avm4lk$qct$1@bunyip.cc.uq.edu.au
"David Wright" <davidw@uq.net.au> writes:
> Obviously, the devil is in the detail as to timing,
> scope and sequence; an *in-depth* comparative analysis
> would clearly be futile for a complete beginner,
> perhaps even a 'false beginner'.
The second or third year programming languages classes go into it in more detail.
Have a look at some of the courses offered by the exmembers of the PLT at Rice.
> It seems to me that even the notion of examining
> different programming paradigms at an "entry" or
> "beginner" level is anathema or at least a novel idea.
No, it has been standard in computer science education for many years.
Even in the 80's the first year undergrads at UNSW worked only in Miranda
( a FP language that has since been replaced by SML , ML and haskell )
> neither the MS Computer Dictionary nor Prentice Halls
> Dictionary of Computing contains an entry for
> 'imperative'.
So ?
And the MS Medical Dictionary and Prentice Halls
Dictionary of Medicine for Dummies are unlikely to have
angiogenesis factor or tropomyosin in their listings .
However, even a first year med student would know what these are.
University courses have a content that is fairly different from what the interested layman
would read. Spinothalamic tract function is unlikely to interest a health/fitness fanatic
while a med student who did not know about its anatomy, physiology and clinical effects of
its lesions would deserve to fail.
> And even after reading several
> introduction to programming texts, e.g. Perry, Wang,
> Dale, Hennefeld, I am none-the-wiser as to the precise
> meaning of this elementary term and must surmise that
> it is synonymous with 'structural' and subsumes
> languages such as Basic, Pascal, Ada, and C.
Actually no.
In a nutshell, an imperative language contains the assignment statement.
Remember the evil := in Pascal and Ada and = in C and Basic ?
FPs do not use assignment.
"In imperative programming, a name may be assigned to a value and later reassigned to another
value. The collection of names and the associated values and the location of control in the
program constitute the state. The state is a logical model of storage which is an association
between memory locations and values. A program in execution generates a sequence of states
The transition from one state to the next is determined by assignment
operations and sequencing commands"
http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:KbOmng6LCJ8C:cs.wwc.edu/~aabyan/221_2/PLBOOK/Imperative.html+imperative+programming&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
> With the self-teaching hobbyist and non-tertiary
> inclined in mind, would it really be such an invidious
> task for someone to condescend to write a "Comparative
> Programming Paradigms and Languages" for (Inquisitive)
> Dummies? <8-))
Try Programming Language Pragmatics by Scott ( can't see the initials on the boo spine from
my chair :-)
It is a nice book.
--
natsu-gusa ya / tsuwamono-domo-ga / yume no ato
summer grasses / strong ones / dreams site
Summer grasses,
All that remains
Of soldier's dreams
(Basho trans. Stryk)
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2003-01-11 17:47 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 109+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2002-12-21 3:30 Why is Ada NOT a good choice for a beginner to programming? David Wright
2002-12-21 5:44 ` sk
2002-12-23 14:29 ` Wes Groleau
2002-12-23 17:36 ` sk
2002-12-23 18:24 ` David Wright
2002-12-23 19:16 ` sk
2002-12-23 19:48 ` David Wright
2002-12-23 21:33 ` Wes Groleau
2002-12-23 21:17 ` Robert A Duff
2002-12-24 19:22 ` faust
2002-12-24 0:46 ` Robert A Duff
2002-12-24 9:41 ` Pascal Obry
2002-12-25 4:43 ` faust
2002-12-27 17:54 ` Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
2003-01-02 13:50 ` Wes Groleau
2002-12-25 7:24 ` AG
2003-01-02 9:56 ` John McCabe
2003-01-02 13:47 ` Wes Groleau
2003-01-08 19:39 ` faust
2003-01-08 2:44 ` Jeffrey Creem
2003-01-08 18:54 ` Wes Groleau
2003-01-08 19:48 ` chris.danx
2003-01-08 21:59 ` Wes Groleau
2003-01-09 15:31 ` Georg Bauhaus
2003-01-10 3:26 ` Hyman Rosen
2003-01-10 22:58 ` Georg Bauhaus
2003-01-10 3:51 ` Kevin Cline
2003-01-10 13:29 ` Wes Groleau
2003-01-11 12:09 ` Richard Riehle
2003-01-11 18:13 ` Wes Groleau
2003-01-09 16:52 ` faust
2003-01-08 21:57 ` Vinzent Hoefler
2003-01-09 0:59 ` faust
2003-01-09 0:59 ` faust
2003-01-08 13:14 ` Ted Dennison
2003-01-08 17:41 ` Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
2003-01-09 16:40 ` faust
2003-01-08 21:58 ` Vinzent Hoefler
2002-12-23 21:30 ` Wes Groleau
2002-12-23 22:11 ` David Wright
2002-12-30 16:22 ` Mark
2002-12-24 0:50 ` Craig Carey
2002-12-29 14:44 ` Colin Paul Gloster
2002-12-21 8:39 ` arvids lemchens
2002-12-21 8:53 ` Gautier
2002-12-21 9:42 ` Craig Carey
2002-12-21 10:44 ` Dale Stanbrough
2002-12-21 15:47 ` Alfred Hilscher
2002-12-21 19:01 ` tmoran
2002-12-22 1:06 ` Robert C. Leif
2002-12-23 14:56 ` Wes Groleau
2002-12-23 11:05 ` Alfred Hilscher
2002-12-22 0:34 ` James S. Rogers
2002-12-23 11:11 ` Alfred Hilscher
2002-12-23 14:32 ` Wes Groleau
2002-12-23 19:54 ` tmoran
2002-12-21 10:51 ` Why is Ada a good choice for an ambitious beginner to programming Wojtek Narczynski
2002-12-22 14:40 ` Bill Findlay
2002-12-22 15:08 ` Bill Findlay
2002-12-22 23:02 ` David Wright
2002-12-23 1:36 ` Bill Findlay
2002-12-23 2:13 ` David Wright
2002-12-23 14:40 ` Wes Groleau
2002-12-27 21:25 ` Randy Brukardt
2002-12-23 11:52 ` Wojtek Narczynski
2002-12-23 14:12 ` Bill Findlay
2002-12-23 20:15 ` Wojtek Narczynski
2002-12-24 19:29 ` Bill Findlay
2002-12-24 22:56 ` Wojtek Narczynski
2002-12-24 23:31 ` Bill Findlay
2002-12-24 23:36 ` Adrian Knoth
2002-12-25 8:23 ` Hyman Rosen
2002-12-27 17:27 ` Kevin Cline
2002-12-28 1:56 ` Bill Findlay
2002-12-28 2:13 ` Bill Findlay
2002-12-29 6:07 ` Hyman Rosen
2002-12-23 20:52 ` Wojtek Narczynski
2002-12-23 20:07 ` chris.danx
2003-01-02 10:04 ` John McCabe
2003-01-02 21:32 ` Bill Findlay
2003-01-04 22:55 ` David Wright
2003-01-05 0:50 ` Bill Findlay
2003-01-05 2:18 ` David Wright
2003-01-05 3:57 ` John R. Strohm
2003-01-10 2:51 ` Richard Riehle
2003-01-10 9:45 ` David Wright
2003-01-10 10:59 ` Richard Riehle
2003-01-11 17:47 ` u.r. faust [this message]
2003-01-06 9:43 ` John McCabe
2003-01-06 10:05 ` John McCabe
2003-01-06 11:13 ` Bill Findlay
2003-01-10 2:58 ` Richard Riehle
2003-01-10 9:29 ` John McCabe
2002-12-21 11:57 ` Why is Ada NOT a good choice for a beginner to programming? David Marceau
2002-12-21 15:59 ` Alfred Hilscher
2002-12-21 17:48 ` Britt Snodgrass
2002-12-21 20:05 ` Peter Hend�n
2002-12-22 1:54 ` faust
2002-12-22 1:28 ` Hyman Rosen
2002-12-22 2:11 ` Larry Kilgallen
2002-12-22 22:49 ` faust
[not found] ` <u7m2ua.qk3.ln@beastie.ix.netcom.com>
2002-12-23 14:55 ` Wes Groleau
2002-12-24 14:01 ` W D Tate
2002-12-24 20:06 ` Rod Haper
2002-12-25 0:37 ` noone
2002-12-26 13:23 ` W D Tate
2002-12-26 20:37 ` David Starner
2002-12-27 14:02 ` W D Tate
2003-01-13 12:18 ` John English
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