[geeks] Introductory programming language?

[Mouse]

> The biggest problem I have with how collages are teaching programming
> is that they spend *WAY* too much time in a single language.

Yeah...and I think this is tied in with your other point: you don't get
programmers, you get $LANGUAGE programmers.

That's one reason I want to expose my sister to multiple languages from
right early on.

> My hope would be (and it's not going to happen) that a first year CS
> student would learn 3-4+ languages (at least).  They should also
> write 10,000+ lines of code in that same year...

I disagree.

That would be appropriate for a programming student.  A CS student
should have a passing familiarity with languages, since they illustrate
principles and such, but programming should be only a minor part of the
curriculum, just as CS should be only a minor part of a programming
student's curriculum.

Unfortunately, far too many people - schools, students, third parties,
no group seems to be immune - confuse the two, thinking that CS and
programming are the same discipline, or at least close enough that
teaching programming and calling it CS (or taking CS to learn
programming, or speccing a CS degree for a programmer job position, or
etc) is sane.

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