Why don't we teach Sudoku in schools ..

[esme]

But then which is better training for the real world, remembering that most people do not go into computing - teaching how to do things with the apps that are most likely to be on their PCs, or teaching them to do things with apps that aren't likely to be on their PCs?

 

Not that it should be that windows should be on most PCs, but the irony of this thread is that people are complaining that they don't teach "real-world" skills, then you are complaining that they are teaching the things they are most likely to use in the real world!

 

On your later point about BASIC, it is still quite useful, cos it is a lot easier to say that cout is just like print, than it is to actually explain what cout does. Incidentally, took me a while to realise it meant "c-out" - i thought it was pronounced coot or cowt

 

well, I was taught how to analyse problems break them down and solve them, this is a skill that I've found extremely useful in real life, it also came in handy for writing computer programs for work too

 

I never said basic wasn't useful, in fact I've used basic, in various forms, more than I've used pascal in a work environment which is the language I was first taught at uni where they told me to forget basic

 

...ok they taught me to be a nerd