[Info-vax] Programming languages, was: Re: And another one bites the dust....

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 2/21/2022 5:44 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 2/21/2022 2:34 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> On 2022-02-21, Scott Dorsey <kludge at panix.com> wrote:
>>> Academics shouldn't be teaching programming languages, they should be
>>> teaching programming concepts.  If you know C or Pascal, learning
>>> how to write the procedure division code in COBOL should be a matter
>>> of a couple hour's study.  Once you know the concepts, learning the
>>> syntax is easy.  (Frustrating, perhaps, because the COBOL syntax is
>>> so horrible, but easy.)
>>>
>>
>> Syntax is only one small part of it. Understanding the reason for the
>> language is very important as well.
>>
>> For example, you can write C code with Ada syntax by declaring everything
>> as Integer or you can learn the Ada type system and start using the Ada
>> way of thinking to model your problem using Ada's type system.
> 
> Why does any of that have to be tied to any language?
> 
> Concepts and procedures is what is important.

Yes.

They should really learn that there are different approaches to types:
* dynamic typing
* implicit static typing
* explicit static typing with basic types and composite types
* static typing with possibility of constrained basic types

There are multiple languages available for example sin each category.

Arne