I think there is a mistaken assumption in the question that was first asked, and that many seem to have taken at face value: that Java is an appropriate language for learning programming. I don't think this is true.
Java introduces two important and difficult topics at the same time: programming and object-oriented design. Because they're so intertwined in Java, it's hard to get a handle of one if you don't already have a handle on the other. In the past, Pascal was the language commonly used in beginning University programming courses. After the fundamentals of programming were taught using this small and simple educational language, students were prepared moved on to richer language like C/C++, Smalltalk or whatever without getting overwhelmed. There is trend now in universities to start teaching Java early, but not all once at the beginning. I know this is an issue that many CS departments are struggling with. When my wife studied Java at Harvard, they first introduced o-o concepts by using the toy language Karel++. It's kind of a stupid language, like an o-o version of Logo, but by concentrating on that for the first six weeks or so till o-o concepts were grasped, the o-o aspects of Java were easy to understand and the students could concentrate on learning programming. This seemed like a good solution to me. My wife who is not at all technically-minded, and seemed previously baffled by the work I do, was able to progress quite rapidly. - David Gallardo At 01:00 PM 9/27/2002 +1000, Tim Nicholson wrote: >Pascal or Basic are not languages that are popular in industry. I doubt they >are used at all. > ______________________________________________ To change your JDJList options, please visit: http://www.sys-con.com/java/list.cfm
