Wayne Watson wrote:
...
I started with what I might call a (well-known) bloated book on the
subject, it took until chapter 3 for the author to say anything about
running programs. The first programming job I had found me staring at
a government issued 200 page manual printed in capitals on a then
popular language. What a huge bore. It's a wonder that I continued, or
anyone, for that matter. I guess the right start matters, or in the
words of the hero in Schindler's List (movie), "It's all about
presentation."
In the 80's I taught computer classes at the Boeing Company in Seattle.
On several occasions I was given handouts similar to that. One example
was a Fortran course that spent the first morning on writing
expressions. I imagined students wanting some context for this topic. At
the first opportunity I wrote a new handout; the first topic was a
program to read 2 numbers, add them and print the sum. (In that era
programs were run in batch mode on a HP3000. The students edited the
program at their terminals, submitted them, waited a few minutes then
received listings from the printer down the hall. We did eventually
cover expressions.
--
Bob Gailer
Chapel Hill NC
919-636-4239
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