Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
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From: rfenney@netcom.com (Robert J. Fenney)
Subject: Re: Need opinions on SmallTalk
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Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 22:29:30 GMT
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In article <313F103B.5404@ccm.jf.intel.com>, Patrick Logan
<patrick_d_logan@ccm.jf.intel.com> wrote:

> Philip Chapman wrote:
> 
> > I need to find some possible reasons why & why not SmallTalk should be
> > used as a the language taught to first year Computer Science students.
> 
> I believe it should not be the first thing taught to computer science 
> students. The reason, in spite of its relative power/simplicity
> ratio, is that it is just one interpretation of just one style of
> programming.
> 
> The computer science student should be exposed to a more broad range of
> programming styles and an understanding that programming in any style is
> a form of communication. The book Structure and Interpretation of Computer
> Programs, Abelson & Sussman, MIT Press, provides the foundation needed
> to understand programming in general. Then Smalltalk can be presented as
> one specific style of object-oriented programming.
> 
> -- 
> mailto:Patrick_D_Logan@ccm.jf.intel.com
> (503) 264-9309, FAX: (503) 264-3375
> 
> "Poor design is a major culprit in the software crisis...
> ...Beyond the tenets of structured programming, few accepted...
> standards stipulate what software systems should be like [in] detail..."
> -IEEE Computer, August 1995, Bruce W. Weide

Actually this should be step 3 in a Comp. Sci. education.

Step 1) learn a language and how to express concepts to a machine.
Step 2) learn about algorithms and how to implement them.
Step 3) learn about a multitlude of languages and how they are constructed,
their underlying structures.

Now you have the basics and can really get to teaching.


Robert

P.S. This is how I learned at UCI.
