--- Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
While some have suggested BASIC and FOrth, no one
has yet suggested
COBOL. Yet, COBOL is the closest of common
programming languages to
English, unless you'd like to count some of the
contrived "natural
programming languages" such as Metafor. In any
case, COBOL might be
closer to the language already understood by a young
person.
So? The poor kid is likely to develop CTS before he
hits 18. I took COBOL in HS, and man did I hate it.
FORTRAN was much more funner.
Besides, where would you find a COBOL compiler for a
peecee or whatever else? Here's a question - what
8-bitters (or defunct 16-bitters, Atari, Amiga, you
know, the common stuff) had COBOL available?
What was SNOBOL? What about COBAL? I think I have
COBAL for the TI PC.
I submit that any high-level programming
language--formal or natural--
while a shortcut way to get a machine to "do
something", obscures the
inner workings of a computer to such an extent as to
give little clue
as to precisely how the thing operates. In
particular, "structured
programming" elements can really hide inner
workings.
So, I propose that programming be taught first in
machine language,
then assembly. That's how I learned to do it.
A smattering of assembly language to begin with
maybe. That's something someone will learn only if
they want to. Lots of people have problems with it.
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