Beginner's Language Paper

If anyone remembers the poll I had on which language they thought was a better beginner's language, Axon asked me to post the paper once it was done.

The poll thread: http://cboard.cprogramming.com/showt...threadid=48019

Index page of papers I've put online:http://www.mikemill.org/papers/

There is only two papers up right now, I think you will all get a chuckle of the other paper.

Please read the comments at the top of the page (both the index page and the paper's page) before arguing with me on a point :)

I do not know what my grade for the paper is. I had a B going into this paper and left the class with a B so I'm assuming I got an ok grade on it.

I noticed a few grammar/spelling mistakes. Did you proof-read the essays before you handed them in? (No offense)

I did, but my spelling and grammer are not the best. My two biggest weaknesses are then/than and is/are. English is my weakest subject yet I am pretty harsh on myself when it comes to writing.

No offense taken :)

Overall, you clearly addressed the topic at hand. I'd give you an A, I wonder if it piqued the interest of your fellow classmates.

Overall, it's a pretty good, pretty effective paper. I think, if anyone has an interest in programming who reads it, they'll heed your advice.

Quote:

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One learns to add and subtract before he or she learns to multiply and divide.

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As a point of style, I recommend avoding the indefinite pronoun one. One sounds stilted even for an academic paper, using this pronoun. I also recommend avoiding the informal pronoun a lot in an academic paper; it is one's opposite in formality.

I know it can be difficult to remember when to use then and when to use than because, at least in some accents, the two are pronounced the same, but I remember than as being for comparison and then as being for sequence of time, answering the question when? (i.e., then!).

Thanks for the feedback.

@whistlenm1: Not sure, we only did one peer review and that version was a lot more techy. I had sample code in the paper, full code in the appendix, and another appendix with a snipet from BWK's paper. One of my peer reviewers had taken Pascal before so was interested in it. The other was this older women who was a moron and I don't think quite got the material. So from there I did a rewrite as far as style to make it more friendly.

@UnregdRegd: Thanks for the tips, I'll try to remember that.

A lot better than me!

Wish you get A++

You didn't mention something important: C has no abstraction for strings, just pointers. This is very hard for newbies to understand.
Here's a very interesting paper written by Stroustrup on this topic: http://www.research.att.com/~bs/new_learning.pdf

Grammar is also very funny. I have completely different problems than native speakers have (I'm from Sweden). I have absolutely no problem distinguishing between there-their-they're and then-than, but make different mistakes (I'm looking forward to meet[ing] you).

Quote:

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You didn't mention something important: C has no abstraction for strings, just pointers. This is very hard for newbies to understand.

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And even harder to expain the difference to someone with no background in computers (ie my audience).

As far as the language goes, my audience was assumed to speak english as their primary language.