Pascal - What is the use?

[SleepyX]

Thanks for all the responses. They are offering the other languages you all mentioned, however, Pascal was the cheapest and since i am clueless i just garnered interest in cheapest. As usual in life, you get what you pay for or would have paid for.

Python, and everything needed to make it work, is 100% FREE AND OPEN SOURCE.

Free video tutorials:

http://iamar.net/subpages/PythonVid.html

Massachussets Institute of Technology Video Tutorials

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical...Home/index.htm (videos on left.)

[KoyoteGambit]

To be honest, if you can get your hands on a couple of the "For Dummies" series of books for which ever language you choose, you'll be constantly ahead of the class. And as SleepX said its all online, free and LEGAL.

[Rx]

Pascal with its procedural base lends itself to learning to program and concepts of basic computer science. It was my favourite language from the late 80s to '91 when I stopped coding.

But besides from Delphi, not sure of its relevance.

Get a book on Visual Basic, you won't regret it.

[Aldayne]

Pascal is the mandatory language used for the CSEC General proficiency Information Technology exam and SBA. I've often wondered why but i guess programming foundation is 'easier' grasp with pascal perhaps?

[SleepyX]

Pascal is the mandatory language used for the CSEC General proficiency Information Technology exam and SBA. I've often wondered why but i guess programming foundation is 'easier' grasp with pascal perhaps?

A quotation from How to think like a Computer Scientist:

Comparing the explanatory text of the program in each version of the book further illustrates what this means to the beginning student. There are thirteen paragraphs of explanation of “Hello, world!” in the C++ version; in the Python version, there are only two. More importantly, the missing eleven paragraphs do not deal with the “big ideas” in computer programming but with the minutia of C++ syntax. I found this same thing happening throughout the book. Whole paragraphs simply disappear from the Python version of the text because Python’s much clearer syntax renders them unnecessary.

Using a very high-level language like Python allows a teacher to postpone talking about low-level details of the machine until students have the background that they need to better make sense of the details. It thus creates the ability to put “first things first” pedagogically. One of the best examples of this is the way in which Python handles variables. In C++ a variable is a name for a place that holds a thing. Variables have to be declared with types at least in part because the size of the place to which they refer needs to be predetermined. Thus, the idea of a variable is bound up with the hardware of the machine. The powerful and fundamental concept of a variable is already difficult enough for beginning students (in both computer science and algebra). Bytes and addresses do not help the matter. In Python a variable is a name that refers to a thing.

This is a far more intuitive concept for beginning students and is much closer to the meaning of “variable” that they learned in their math courses. I had much less difficulty teaching variables this year than I did in the past, and I spent less time helping students with problems using them.

There are no return types, parameter types, or reference and value parameters to get in the way, so I am now able to teach functions in less than half the time that it previously took me, with better comprehension.


Using Python has improved the effectiveness of our computer science program for all students. I see a higher general level of success and a lower level of frustration than I experienced during the two years I taught Pascal .I move faster with better results. More students leave the course with the ability to create meaningful programs and with the positive attitude toward the experience of programming that this engenders.

This is a list of schools where Python is taught as an introductory language:

High Schools

*

Yorktown High School, in Arlington Virginia (Jeff Elkner)
*

Canterbury School, in Fort Wayne, IN (Vern Ceder)
*

Gimnasio Fidel Cano, Bogotá, Colombia (Igor Támara)

Colleges and Universities

Australia

* University of New South Wales

* RMIT University

Canada

* University of Toronto
o


* University of Waterloo
o

One of the more prestigious engineering/comp-sci schools in Canada is using it officially in CS488 (Intro to 3D graphics), and I'm told there's lots of use among faculty, staff and students. I don't think they actually teach much Python, they're focused on teaching OpenGL/graphics programming, but they do wind up using it as the framework into which the students slot their code.

* Wilfrid Laurier University
o

Python is taught in the Introduction to Programming (CP104) and Data Structures (CP114) courses.

* Cégep du Vieux-Montréal
o Used for Advanced Web Development course (420-B63-VM)
o

Note: Cégeps are collegiate level schools giving a 2 year pre-university program or a 3 year professionnal program such as Computing Technology

France

* Université Bordeaux 1
o

Python is used as a first language for the Science & Technology licence
o

http://dept-info.labri.fr/initinfo/index.html
* Université Paris Sud (Paris XI) - IUT d'Orsay
o Python is used as computer science learning language for the "DUT Mesures Physiques" cursus
o

http://www.iut-orsay.fr/dptmphy/Pedagogie/
* Université Paris 13 - IUT Villetaneuse
o

Python is used as a first language for the Telecom & Networks DUT
o

http://www-gtr.iutv.univ-paris13.fr/Cours
* Institut Pasteur - Cours d'Informatique en Biologie
o Python is used a the main language for teaching programming.
o

Course description: http://www.pasteur.fr/formation/infobio/
o

Online Python course: http://www.pasteur.fr/formation/infobio/python/

Singapore

* Republic Polytechnic
o Python is used as the main language for teaching introductory programming in a problem-based
+ learning approach.
o

http://www.rp.sg/courses/ict/it/course_structure.asp

United Kingdom

* University of Oxford
o Department of Physics (need to confirm)
o

http://www-teaching.physics.ox.ac.uk...ok_Python.html
* University of Wolverhampton
*

Coventry University http://www.coventry.ac.uk

United States

California

* University of California, Irvine
o


* University of California Santa Cruz Extension in Sunnyvale CA
* Chapman University, Orange

Colorado

* University of Northern Colorado

Connecticut

* Wesleyan University

Florida

* University of Florida
* Florida Community College at Jacksonville

Georgia

* Georgia Tech
o

Introduction to Media Computation

Idaho

*

Lewis & Clark State College

Iowa

* University of Iowa
* Wartburg College
o Zelle's school
* Luther College

Kentucky

* Morehead State University

Massachusetts

* Hampshire College

Michigan

* Western Michigan University
* Kalamazoo College

Minnesota

* Minnesota State at Bemidji

Mississippi

* Mississippi College

Missouri

* Southeast Missouri State

New York

* Binghamton University
o Introduction to programming for students without any programming experience.
o Python is used in this course using John Zelle's book
o

Course homepage: http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~cs110/

North Carolina

* Brunswick Community College, Supply NC

Ohio

* Capital University
o Python is used in the traditional CS1 course using John Zelle's book
o Python and C++ are used in CS2
o lab assignments in many courses may be written in Python or C++
o contact person: David Reed (dreed (at) capital.edu)
* Kent State

Oregon

* Mt Hood Community College

Pennsylvania

* Bryn Mawr College


I does not appear to me that CSEC Science a nd Technology courses are of much relevance in today's world. Especially their Informationation Technology ICT or whatever wool they are pulling over the eyes of the Jamaican people

[pogi_2nr]

I learned pascal after qbasic back in the day, its a great teaching language.

I used it to do my GCE a level project, when the rest of my class used ms access

It is a good language to learn as an introduction to others such as C

[d_genius]

well i heard they bringing pascal to csec now so guess the upcoming students will learn this language

[Aldayne]

well i heard they bringing pascal to csec now so guess the upcoming students will learn this language

Pascal has been the mandatory language for CSEC since last year.

[iKlsR]

its what i am using in school now so yh... it does have some use... plus it only lacks OOP otherwise its a pretty decent language...

[Skele Drew]

I think the syntax is a nightmare. Why := when you can easily use = which makes more sense?