never mind the language, what about the paradigm?
There is increasing discussion about the primary programming language used for undergraduate courses in Computer Science. In particular, the language used for CS1 and CS2 is regarded as a crucial factor in students' subsequent progress in the discipline, not to mention their mental well-being. It is argued here that instead of focussing our attention on whether we should be teaching Ada or MODULA-2, we should be asking if these languages belong to the right class. There is mounting evidence that small languages are not only beautiful but that they lead to more easily verifiable programs, more predictable implementations, and a better foundation for programming in the large. I do not pretend to answer any more questions than I ask.
language program programming language computer science factor student attention teaching class evidence predict implementation