Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!gatech!mcnc!ecsvax!hes
From: hes@ecsvax.UUCP (Henry Schaffer)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: What is CS? (Was re First languages)
Summary: what is programming - does it depend on your area?
Message-ID: <4859@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: 3 Apr 88 18:51:57 GMT
References: <3684@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <568@abcom.ATT.COM> <607@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>
Organization: NC State Univ.
Lines: 28

In article <607@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>, jefu@pawl23.pawl.rpi.edu (Jeffrey Putnam) writes:
> ...
> But then, i am coming to believe that a programming course should be
> required of _all_ students - including humanities students and all. 
> Computers are increasingly common in all disciplines and workplaces and
> a good programming course is the best way to understand the problems and
> advantages of computer use.
> 
  Sometimes I agree with this point of view - especially if "programming"
is interpreted in a general sense.  The programming course for students
in science and engineering would probably be a fairly standard course
using FORTRAN or Pascal.  Would it make sense for the "programming" for
students in the business curriculum to use a spreadsheet as its
language?  I've always wanted to teach a programming course to students
in the humanities and use SNOBOL4 as the language (maybe I would want
to use ICON today.)  I've never had the opportunity - but I think it
would be fascinating to see if students who were motivated by natural
languages and the manipulation of words would respond to a computer
language which facilitated such uses.

  Does teaching students to use a spreadsheet or a math manipulator
(e.g. TK-solver or MathCad, ...) meet your requirement for what 
teaching programming is supposed to do?

> jeff putnam  
> {jefu%pawl -or- jeff_putnam%rpitsmts}@itsgw.rpi.edu

--henry schaffer  n c state univ