Cus Productions

An interesting article by two professor emeritus at New York University. The precis reads:

It is our view that Computer Science (CS) education is neglecting basic skills, in particular in the areas of programming and formal methods. We consider that the general adoption of Java as a first programming language is in part responsible for this decline. We examine briefly the set of programming skills that should be part of every software professional’s repertoire.

With headings like “The Pitfalls of Java as a First Programming Language” it was interesting to read. I started off with BASIC, then 6502, moving to Z80 then onto C, so I think I got a pretty good grounding in the basics before what I consider the higher level languages like C++, Java and .NET came along. That’s pretty much allowed me to get a grip on any language thrown at me, although each has its idiosyncracies (eg templating in C++, delegates, interfaces, partial classes etc in .NET).