Teaching C as first programming language

[Simon Grouchy Babes Chapman]

In article <1991Jun19.172436.14898 at itnsg1.cineca.it> ditolla at itnsg1.cineca.it (Francesco Di Tolla) writes:
>It's good!
>If the first language you learn is hard, then you 'll learn other
>languages in a short time;
>if you learn C or Pascal, you'll be able to read programs written
>in Fortran or Basic.
>C is a bit harder then Pascal..., so the student also in other 
>laguages 'll program better then if hi started with the other.

I can't believe that I just read this. Not a sign of `IMHO'
anywhere. If you make students learn a language that you _know_
is `hard', are you sure you haven't put them off learning
another language forever ?

I'm not overly sold on the idea of giving anyone K & R as a
learning exercise either. I regularly recommend Stephen Kochan's
C books as good beginning C books.

IMHO. ;-) Flame off. Where's the vodka.

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