Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
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From: sjs16@itri.bton.ac.uk (Simon John Shurville)
Subject: Re: Smalltalk as first programming language
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Date: Sun, 19 Nov 1995 12:59:28 GMT
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> IVAN TOMEK wrote:
> >We are in the process of discussing which should be the new first 
> >programming language in our Computer Science program and I am responsible
> >for finding out about the suitability of Smalltalk.
> >I would appreciate it very much if those of you who are using Smalltalk as
> >the >first language or considering it contacted me.

I hear that the Open University (who I work for but not in a smalltalk
capacity) are going to use smalltalk as the language in which to teach
fundamentals of computing to undergraduates as part of its maths
programme. This is a good idea in my opinion and you can bet that the
OU researched the hell out of the issue - they always do!

Like many British people I started out programming with basic becuase
it was included in the BBC B. That was fine in the early 1980s but now
that computers are so fast and memory is so cheap it would make a lot
of sense to bundle smalltalk (esp. a visual smalltalk) with educational
oriented machines. Apple: wake up!

