Abstract
One of the crucial decisions in organizing a first course in computer science is the choice of a programming language. Although there is considerable variance of opinion as to what the ideal language should be, two main approaches can be delineated. The first approach stresses the necessity of learning the dominant scientific language, which in the Americas amounts to a vote for Fortran (2). The practicality of this choice is as indisputable as the awkwardness of the syntax of that language. The alternative view stresses the importance of the program structure in developing a sound sense of “algorithmic thinking”. Proponents of this view would suggest Algol W (4) or perhaps Pascal (5). We contend that both approaches have important advantages. This paper explores an approach which attempts to maximize the benefits of both.
- 1 Atchison, W. F., et al, "Curriculum 68 - Recommendations for Academic Programs in Computer Science," CACM, 11, 1968, pp. 151-197. Google Scholar
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- 2 Ralston, A., "Fortran and the First Course in Computer Science," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 3,No. 4, December 1971. Google Scholar
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- 3 Van Wijngaarden, A., Mailloux, B. J., Peck, J. E. L., and Koster, C. H. A., Report on the Algorithmic Language Algol 68, MR 101, Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam, October 1969. Google Scholar
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- 4 Wirth, N., Hoare, C., "A Contribution to the Development of ALGOL," CACM, 9, 1966, pp. 413-432. Google Scholar
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- 5 Wirth, N., "The Programming Language PASCAL," Acta Informatica, 1, 1971, pp. 35-64.Google Scholar
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- 6 Wulf, william A., "A Case Against the GOTO," SIGPLAN Notices, Vol. 7, No. 11, November 1972. Google Scholar
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Index Terms
LINUS: A structured language for instructional use
Recommendations
LINUS: A structured language for instructional use
SIGCSE '74: Proceedings of the fourth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science educationOne of the crucial decisions in organizing a first course in computer science is the choice of a programming language. Although there is considerable variance of opinion as to what the ideal language should be, two main approaches can be delineated. The ...
Layout-sensitive language extensibility with SugarHaskell
Haskell '12: Proceedings of the 2012 Haskell SymposiumProgrammers need convenient syntax to write elegant and concise programs. Consequently, the Haskell standard provides syntactic sugar for some scenarios (e.g., do notation for monadic code), authors of Haskell compilers provide syntactic sugar for more ...
Layout-sensitive language extensibility with SugarHaskell
Haskell '12Programmers need convenient syntax to write elegant and concise programs. Consequently, the Haskell standard provides syntactic sugar for some scenarios (e.g., do notation for monadic code), authors of Haskell compilers provide syntactic sugar for more ...






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