I suppose the inclusion of this article was to allow us to compare the curriculum for a course designed in 1984 to more recent courses. One thing that surprised me for this paper was the idea that the incoming students will have had a course in programming in highschool. That is not the case when we suppose the computer history of the students in 15. I don't think that that is a good assumption for any undergrad program. It just isn't fair. As I've stated in other papers, some people just don't have the opportunities.

In the early eighties computer science was extremely math based...it still is but not as much. People can go for years learning about complex algorithms without having knowledge past algebra and trig. This paper assumes that the prospective students have completed both of these.

Now, the language doesn't matter so much. They proposed using Pascal or Ada and we might use C, C++, or Java, maybe Scheme, LISP, or even Pascal. Thank God, no Fortran. But now, if you'll notice, many of the languages that would be appropriate are OOP. Which requires another topic that isn't included in their curriculum: OOP design. They include design which is different than OOP design.

Overall, there is no impression that this article gave me. I didn't oppose any of the ideas proposed. Of course, I didn't overwhelmingly support any of them. It seemed pretty standard to me really.

You bring up an interesting point about design: how is OO different from procedural (or functional) design? While I agree that the two are different. How different are they really? They both involve deconstructing a problem into componenet parts, but one focuses on the data, the other on the manipulation of data.

I'm not arguing the merits of procedural programming, I'm just asking if OO is everyone's ideal design model.

(re: Adam) Many proponents of OOP that I've talked to believe that it is a "more natural" way of approaching problems, especially if you've never programmed before -- I don't know if I agree with that notion; as I've said before, the thought process necessary in programming is difficult to acquire, whether it be within an OO or procedural framework.