Martin Owen (t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk)
Thu, 9 Sep 1999 17:03:19 +0000
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 17:03:19 +0000 From: Martin Owen <t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk> Subject: Re: The Role of Computer Programming in Education
List address to send message to everyone: ifets-discuss@LISTSERV.READADP.COM
Details of current discussion: http://grouper.ieee.org/ltsc/ifets/discussions/discuss.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ken writes:
>
>And I think these quotes have something to say about why special purpose
>programming system like Excel and Stella, while very worthwhile, aren't
>enough. And why media creation tools for creating animations or stories,
>while also very worthwhile, aren't enough. Only a general purpose
>programming language gives the "degrees of freedom" that Alan wrote about or
>enables one to use a computer as an "imagination machine".
I have temendous symphathies with what Ken and Clark are saying. Elsewhere
I have a lot to say about the inadequacies of teaching spreadsheets etc.
The main issue is that we need tools that promote **the effective
expression of ideas** in a computer executable form (if the "value of
modelling" hypothesis holds).
We have had several paradigms of programming language:
procedural (Algol, Pascal etc) , declarative (Prolog, Excel(?)) , object
oriented (SmallTalk) , functional (Lisp, Forth).
There have been hybrids of these: LOGO, Hypercard
There have been environments in which these programming concepts have
lived: straight text editors (emacs), intelligent editors (lisp Machines),
and visual programming systems (SmallTalk80).
Each of these systems have been capable of different forms of expression.
Attempts to be all embracing in expression have been fraught (eg ADA). It
is easier to do algebra in Forth (if you are in reverse Polish!), it is
easier to write expert systems in Prolog.
You can do your accounts in Prolog, but I would not want to start with
PROLOG as a tool. It is not a good langauge for expressing ideas in the
form that the "culture of accountancy" expects ideas to be expressed.
A good computer education needs to address the fundamentals of expression
of ideas in the form of computer programmes. The Structure and
Interpretation of computer Programmes (Abelson et al) was written as a MIT
freshman text is good at this at that level (and works in Scheme: as with
LOGO a quasi procedural development from LISP).
However I do not think we are at a stage in computer language development
that we can describe a fully expressive tool. We may continue to need many
tools. The question raised by Ken's point for me is" Is there a boundary
between computer language and a computer tool?"
In the end I could do the whole stuff in machine code (when I started this
game I really needed those jump leads to bootstrap the machine). This is
clearly stupid. What would be nice would be a highly expressive paradigm
for computing (the OO metaphor works well for me) in which we could draw on
components to create the tools that are fit for the job of expressing the
ideas that need expressing. The loss of OpenDoc as a technology is a great
sorrow to me_ Java is not the same, and JavaBeans have not shown their
promise.
Count Nikolai Tesla used to be able to calculate and visualise field
patterns in his head... and designed the fractional horse-power motor
without the aid of the computer. I need that interactive "back of the
envelope".
Too much correspondence this lunchtime! There is an old joke in Android
that goes FE 1B 46 D4.... (pace Grant-Naylor)
martin
Martin Owen
T.M.Owen@bangor.ac.uk
School of Education Yr Ysgol Addysg
University of Wales, Bangor Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor
Normal Site Safle'r Normal
Holyhead Rd Ffordd Caergybi
Bangor Bangor
Gwynedd
LL57 2PX
Voice/Llais +44 1248 382 943
Fax/Ffacs +44 1248 38 36 40
URL: http://weblife.bangor.ac.uk/rem/rem.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You know youv'e got it if it makes you feel good"
(Jerry Ragovoy, Bert Berns)
---------------------------------------------------------
Forum website: http://ifets.gmd.de/
Forum's contact person: kinshuk@ieee.org
Info on Join/Leave List: http://ifets.gmd.de/maillist.html
---------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Fri 10 Sep 1999 - 00:30:07 MEST