Abstract
Since 1999 the School of Computer Science (CS) at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) has been using Scheme as the first programming language our students encounter [2]. We chose Scheme because it is a language unfamiliar to most of the first year students, so that the students with imperative programming experience from school would not have an advantage over those who did not. Also, it has a simple syntax which we felt that students without prior programming experience could easily learn. Finally, the functional paradigm allows a more direct mapping of mathematical concepts to programs, which fits with the mathematical emphasis in our curriculum.
- B. Kumwenda, S. Rauchas, and I. Sanders. The effect of prior programming experience in a Scheme-based breadth-first curriculum. Technical report, School of Computer Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2006.Google Scholar
- I. Sanders and C. Mueller. A fundamentals-based curriculum for first year computer science. Proceedings of the Thirty-first SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 32(1):227--231, Mar. 2000. Google Scholar
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