A Most Important, But Also Most Elusive,

Yes, I Share Your Concern: How To Program Well -though A Teachable Topic- Is Hardly Taught. The Situation Is Similar To That In Mathematics, Where The Explicit Curriculum Is Confined To Mathematical Results; How To Do Mathematics Is Something The Student Must Absorb By Osmosis, So To Speak. One Reason For Preferring Symbol-manipulating, Calculating Arguments Is That Their Design Is Much Better Teachable Than The Design Of Verbal/pictorial Arguments. Large-scale Introduction Of Courses On Such Calculational Methodology, However, Would Encounter Unsurmoutable Political Problems.

There Is Very Little Point In Trying To Urge The World To Mend Its Ways As Long As That World Is Still Convinced That Its Ways Are Perfectly Adequate.

Programming In Basic Causes Brain Damage.

Simplicity Is A Great Virtue But It Requires Hard Work To Achieve It And Education To Appreciate It. And To Make Matters Worse: Complexity Sells Better.

I Now Have Had My Foggy Crystal Ball For Quite A Long Time. Its Predictions Are Invariably Gloomy And Usually Correct, But I Am Quite Used To That And They Won't Keep Me From Giving You A Few Suggestions, Even If It Is Merely An Exercise In Futility Whose Only Effect Is To Make You Feel Guilty.