On Fri, 17 Aug 2001, Douglas Quebbeman wrote:
> I do think it's less likely for someone to pick up bad programming
> habits if they start with Pascal, but that's not an absolute, just a
> probability thing.
Bad programming habits are either LEARNED or NOT CORRECTED early enough!
My high school computer science teacher was a great TEACHER. He
recognized early on that I had the makings of a good programmer and
steered me into good programming habits. He was also a psychologist in a
way: he knew that I, being a typical hacker type, felt I knew it all and
would be resistant to programming in a structured approach. So he
introduced it gradually. Over time he forced me into a structured
programming model in AppleSoft BASIC. I didn't quite understand at the
time why we had to document all our variables in REM statements at the top
of the program, but in time it all made sense. Eventually he steered me
into Pascal to cement the foundations he had taught us in BASIC.
TEACHERS make all the difference! So it is imperative that you go out and
find STUDENTS to TEACH!
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
Received on Fri Aug 17 2001 - 12:20:19 BST