Computing Languages

In October 1997 we (Cambridge University Engineering Department) changed from using pascal to using C++ as our Teaching Language. Here is some related material.

Languages for Teaching

Why not Pascal? Some reasons why we used pascal as a teaching language.
Why C? Some reasons why C is used elsewhere as a teaching language.
Changing to C/C++ (see also Using C in CS1 - Evaluating the Stanford Experience, E. Roberts, Proc. 24th Computer Science in Education Conf., March 1993, pp. 117-121.)
Learning Standard C++ as a New Language (Stroustrup)
Notes on converting from pascal to C++ (Newcastle Univ, UK)
The Teaching About Programming Languages Project
Critiques of C++, Eiffel, etc as teaching languages (by Michael Kölling et al).
A case for Java
The Relative Merits of Java and C++ as first year teaching languages (Robert Stroud)

"We sold our programming soul when we began teaching the pedagogically unsound and intellectually ugly languages C and C++ to beginners" - David Gries (IEEE Computer, October 2006, p.81). Gries uses "an OO-first approach in Java, with all aspects of OO, including inheritance, casting, and so on, coming before recursion and loops"

Language Tutorials

Updated: March 2008

tpl@eng.cam.ac.uk