Experiences with PASCAL in an introductory course
Michael Bauer · 1979
Beginning September, 1975, the Computer Science Department at the University of Western Ontario switched from FORTRAN to PASCAL as the primary language in the first year introductory course. The motivation for such a change was to introduce into the first year course concepts and issues which were becoming central to Computer Science. In particular, the instructors involved in the course wished to a) emphasize algorithm design, effect of choice of representation on design and the creation of well-structured programs, b) expose students to the use of a variety of control structures and data structures, c) introduce, at least informally, the notions of complexity and correctness.