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Fri, 10 Mar 2000 12:02:01 GMT
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We have recently come under pressure to change our initial teaching
language for CS1 from Ada 95 to Java. Apparently this is the sexy
thing to do inspite of the poor/obscure C-like syntax, lack of a
language standard, poor compiler error messages,.....

The plan appears to be to use an OO approach in Java from the start
although the Java textbooks which claim to use this approach seem to
me to place far too high a demand on the students.

I would be grateful for pointers to any arguments and information that
might be useful in resisting such a change.  Any Java horror stories
would be particularly welcome.

Also if anyone has taught CS1 using Ada with an OO aproach from the
start, I would be interested in hearing of their experiences.

   Dr. Alan Barnes
   Computer Science
   Aston University
   Aston Triangle
   Birmingham B4 7ET
   U. K.

   Telephone: +44 121 359 3611 Ext. 4663
   E-Mail:  [log in to unmask]  (JANET)
   Fax:     +44 121 333 6215

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