HELP! Must choose language!

[Martin Christensen]

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>>>>> "Nick" == Nick Vargish <nav at adams.patriot.net> writes:
Nick> I'm just not convinced that _any_ programming language can
Nick> really teach the discipline of solving the problem before a line
Nick> of code is written.

The language can't teach it in and of itself, but it can help by not
'getting in your way'. Python is one language that at least doesn't
get in my way, and others have reported the same, while C and C++
definitely do, especially the latter. The main difference is on
whether you're free to complete the task you set out to do, or if you
are more tied up in language details.

Nick> In my opinion, Scheme is close to a language that teaches the
Nick> basics of algorithm design and problem solving with a minimal
Nick> amount of syntax. I find it quite lovely to work with, but most
Nick> people think I'm insane.

You could possibly be right. Also Scheme and other functional
languages draw very heavily on the mathematical concept of a function
(input, output and no sideeffects), which might be a benefit, but it
then removes itself from the commonly used recipe metaphor. In Scheme
the execution model is also made entirely explicit and transparent by
the parentheses, which also ought to facilitate better comprehension.
I learnt coding by studying (poor) examples and reading the on-line
help files for MS QBasic back in the day, so I didn't have the benefit
of either metaphor to help me, so I can't say what works and what
doesn't. :-)

At my university they started using ML to teach first-year science
students (broadly, not just computer scientists) programming, and the
results have been good compared to Pascal, which was what was used
before.

Martin

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