Forth in mainstream computer science courses (original) (raw)

Forth in mainsteam computer science courses

Proceedings of the fourth annual workshop on Forth: from the classroom to the real world, 1992

All computer science programs contain •some type of course related to computer organization and assembly language programming. A similar course taught at Oakland University includes such mainstream topics as keyboard and screen input/output, number system conversions, floating point, disk 1/0 and graphics. After completing the last six weekly homework assignments in the course the students will have written a workable Forth-like language that can create turtle graphics interactively. The six assignments include producing an RPN calculator for 16-bit integers, adding double number capabilities to the calculator, adding floating point capabilities to the calculator, adding new dictionary entries using colon definitions, adding disk 110 capabilities io the program, and including turtle graphics routines.

Teaching Teachers To Compute: A Revised Syllabus

1985

Education courses in BASIC remain a foundation of teacher training for computer use. Such courses do little more than re-invent programming structures that are already available in such educational programming languages (EPLs) as PILOT and TEACH. While BASIC is the only General programming language that is both simple and powerful enough to enable beginning programmers like teachers to develop software in their own content area, it typically limits them to writing simple programs with multiple-choice format answers. An EPL can generate more powerful, more flexible software in less time without requiring knowledge of a more difficult lower-level programming language. Education courses emphasizing BASIC are obsolete, and educational computing classes should be restructured towara the more versatile EPLs. Teachers, particularly in the humanities, would be better served by mastering one of these languages. BASIC remains useful to know since so many programs have been written in the language, but it should be offered at a reading-knowledge-only level in computer literacy courses.

Teaching recursive programming using parallel multi-turtle graphics

Computers & Education, 1991

A general heuristic scheme for programming of recursive patterns in multi-turtle environments is presented in this paper. It is offered here for its own sake as well as a tool for teaching recursion to high school students of Computer Science (or Informatics) and to teacher training students of Computer Science Teaching. This scheme is relatively simple, when compared in terms of requirements and results with recursive programming of the same patterns in single-turtle environments. Furthermore, when applied to all recursive graphic patterns used in teaching recursive programming, this scheme yields simple recursive programs. Recursion in multi-turtle environments, when limited to those recursive graphic patterns, leads naturally to iterative programs. These results have some theoretical and educational implications that are further discussed in the paper.

A Laboratory Computer Science Course for Liberal Arts Students

1995

A new laboratory course in computer science for liberal arts students has been developed by the author. This breadth-first course covers 13 topics in computer science in a lecture course, while a co-requisite laboratory course provides lab experience with 13 prepared experiments. The Scheme programming notation is used consistently in lecture and laboratory as a lingua franca for computer science. Students are not taught Scheme programming, but rather, learn just enough Scheme syntax and semantics to be able to read and understand programs written by others. Working Scheme models for each computer science topic are presented in the lecture course and are studied experimentally in the laboratory course. The development of this course and laboratory was funded by the Meadows Foundation and NSF grant DUE 9452050.

Computer assisted instruction in computer programming: simpler~ logo, and basic, 1968-1970

1960

Instruction Purpose ADD Used for addition SUB Used for subtraction MUL Used for multiplication DIV Used for division FIX Places specified number in specified register LOAD Places contents of specified location in specified register STOR Stores contents of specified register in in specified register , CMP Three-way. branching command JMP Branching command GET Used to specify input during execution of the program PUT The PRINT command for numeric values CPUT PRINT Character AND Logical AND OR Logical OR XCH Exchange registers SHFT Shift register SOP Special operation BEGIN

A Program to Interpolate (And Extrapolate) Between Turtle Programs

International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning, 2007

This column will publish short (from just a few paragraphs to 10 or so pages), lively and intriguing computer-related mathematics vignettes. These vignettes or snapshots should illustrate ways in which computer environments have transformed the practice of mathematics or mathematics pedagogy. They could also include puzzles or brain-teasers involving the use of computers or computational theory. Snapshots are subject to peer review.

A first course in computer science: languages and goals

Teaching Mathematics and Computer Science, 2003

The College Board Advanced Placement exam in computer science will use the language Java starting in fall 2003. The language chosen for this exam is based on the language commonly taught in introductory computer science courses at the university level. This article reviews the purpose of an introductory course and the various suggestions for the curriculum of introductory courses published by the Association for Computing Machinery. It then proposes that such a course stress foundational concepts over specific language syntax, and then provides a list of such foundational concepts and related topics. Based on this fundamental curriculum, the article recommends C++ as the most appropriate language. An appendix provides a sample syllabus.