Andreas K. Foerster wrote:
you know the problem? You want to teach somebody how to program in Pascal, so you start with simple line oriented programs. And then you get the answer "Pascal is boring, because you can only write old DOS programs with it" (Yes, some even call them "DOS programs", although they run under GNU/Linux).
So for those who want to teach Pascal my project AKFAvatar might be a solution. You can take any Pascal program, which uses only the standard input/output and compile it into a funny graphical program with no extra effort (apart from the first installation). Yes, there is no need to make any changes to the program, just use a wrapper-script to compile your program to use my library. (The program may not use the CRT unit or any other nonstandard output facility)
The same mistake was made in teaching mathematics the-modern-way, with much graphics and much less exact reasoning nor proofs-of-correctness. Well, indeed in a democratic society the Pythogorean Theorem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem should no longer be proofed, which is dictatorial, or even be thought about, which is elitarian, but decided on by voting ....
This is all bullsh..., I mean nonsense. Programming, like mathematics, *is* about exact reasoning and it *is* about abstract thinking. The task of teachers is to lead pupils into this new world and to bring young people to spiritual maturity. It is *not* the task of teachers to succumb to the first shallow prejuduce, like whether something yet unknown is "boring" or not.
Sincerely,
Adriaan van Os