Learning to program, without objects

Programming is hard.

Object-oriented programming is really hard.

Plain (non-object-oriented) programming has the concepts of statements, sequences, loops, comparisons, boolean logic, variables, variable types (text and numeric), input, output, syntax, editing, and execution. That's a lot to comprehend.

Object-oriented programming has all of that, plus classes, encapsulation, access, inheritance, and polymorphism.

Somewhere in between the two is the concept of modules and multi-module programs, structured programming, subroutines, user-defined types (structs), and debugging.

For novices, the first steps of programming (plain, non-object-oriented programming) are daunting. Learning to program in BASIC was hard. (The challenge was in organizing data into small, discrete chunks and processes into small, discrete steps.)

I think that the days of an object-oriented programming language as the "first language to learn" are over. We will not be teaching C# or Java as the introduction to programming. (And certainly not C++.)

The introduction to programming will be with languages that are not necessarily object-oriented: Python or Ruby. Both are, technically, object-oriented programming languages, supporting classes, inheritance, and polymorphism. But you don't have to use those features.

C# and Java, in contrast, force one to learn about classes from the start. One cannot write a program without classes. Even the simple "Hello, world!" program in C# or Java requires a class to hold main() .

Python and Ruby can get by with a simple

print "Hello, world"

and be done with it.

Real object-oriented programs (ones that include a class hierarchy and inheritance and polymorphism) require a bunch of types (at least two, probably three) and operations complex enough to necessitate the need for so many types. The canonical examples of drawing shapes or simulating an ATM are complex enough to warrant object-oriented code.

A true object-oriented program has a minimum level of complexity.

When learning the art of programming, do we want to start with that level of complexity?

Let us divide programming into two semesters. The first semester can be devoted to plain programming. The second semester can introduce object-oriented programming. I think that the "basics" of plain programming are enough for a single semester. I also think that one must be comfortable with those basics before one starts with object-oriented programming.