The introductory programming course in computer science
Geoff M. Schneider · ACM SIGCSE Bulletin · 1978
of Minnesot a I. Introductio n The first course in the overwhelming majority of Computer Science Departments is an introductor y course in high-level language programming [1] .Because of this a number of papers have appeared, i n the SIGCSE Bulletin and elsewhere, describing details of the introductory programming course at a numbe r of schools .These papers are useful in comparing one ' s own approach with that of other schools and possibly learning from them .[2,3 ] However, instead of attempting to abstract general principles from a large number of specific cases , here we wish to take the reverse approach --to describe the crucial goals of any introductory programmin g course while leaving to the reader the design of a specific course to meet these goals .This paper presents what we feel are the ten essential objectives of an initial programming course in Computer Science , regardless of who is teaching or where it is being taught .It attempts to provide an in-depth, philosophical framework for the course called CSI --Computer Programming I --as described by the ACM Curriculu m Committee on Computer Science .[4] From these ten principles will come the skeletal outline of a course .The " flesh " , or specific details, of this course as it will appear at University " X " can and should b e left to the discretion of the instructor at that school .We are not so much concerned with exactly ho w these goals are to be implemented as we are with a consensus on what these goals should be . II. Basic Principle sPrinciple 1 --Students should immediately be taught that a clear, concise problem statement i s always the first step in programming .