Delphi/Pascal training in high school/college/university

Question

Are Delphi/Pascal being taught in any high schools/colleges/universities, particularly in Canada and the US?

I was surprised how many schools in the UK are teaching Delphi. Their largest exam board is even dropping PHP/C#/C in 2011 and encouraging Delphi. I also remember that CodeGear was going to provide development tool licenses to Russian schools a couple of years ago.

I'd like to know if it's being taught closer to (my) home.

Update: Found a bunch in the US and UK along with other countries, but just a few hints in Canada.

Answer 1

I'm from Germany and during my apprenticeship I learned ... Delphi... at school! But I know that since this year they're teaching Java. I'm glad for all those who will not have the "privilege" to fight against "Units", "Interfaces" and class declarations in Delphi! :)

EDIT 1: Yes, I know Canada is on the other side of the globe :)

EDIT 2: We were using a non-professional and old version of the IDE delphi, so it was very uncomfortable to develop even little applications. ^_^ (BTW: C# RUUUULES)

Answer 2

In highschool I took turbo Pascal classes. In college I took a 100 level course in pascal but that was 13 years ago (wow..that makes me feel old). Most of my schooling in college was handled in Resolve C++(a hateful language). My last job had a legacy application built up in Delphi 2006.

So my point is its been around a long time and there are still those who treasure Delphi.

Answer 3

I'm from Germany, too. We had Pascal at high school, later a little Delphi. In university I learned, that it's a nice educational language and in retrospect I partially agree. If I had known what I know today, I'd rather learned python and C at school.

Answer 4

I learned Java in University in Canada, but I never heard anyone learned Delphi/Pascal in school except my CS professor.

Answer 5

In Switzerland we're learning Java and C++ and C on a mandatory basis and some other languages optionally.

And because it was invented by a professor of the neighbouring university we also had an short switch to Eiffel.

During school we also had a look at Turbo Pascal.

Answer 6

I just checked a few local (Seattle area) community college sites to see what they were offering for Intro to Computer Programming / Science. Both were offering C++ courses as their introductory courses.

Answer 7

In Indonesia, 1994, first programming language is C. Turbo Pascal and Delphi were installed in the novell network, we just learn it by doing and ask the seniors. Today, they start with Java. Now I speak Delphi 2010.

Answer 8

In Italy in 1990-91 at University I learned Pascal and Modula 2 on a mandatory basis. Then C/C++ by myself because it was necessary for several programming projects. Now they're learning Java or C#.

Answer 9

I have learned C, C++ and Delphi while I was studing (a few years ago). I fell in love with Delphi when I began to use it. After I finished they switched to C# instead of Delphi.

Answer 10

I live in the Netherlands. In 1996-1997 I learnt Turbo Pascal at school and later on we started with Delphi exercises.

I picked up another study around 2003. Delphi was not taught any longer. They just switched to Java, but by then Delphi7 and JBuilder were still installed on most of the pc's, or you could easily install it via the network.

Some months ago I was back. I saw that Delphi was nowhere to be found. The only slightly related product that was available was an ancient version of Turbo C :-).

The halls were full of posters of free C# workshops organised by Microsoft (!), and Visual Studio was installed on every PC. It looks like Microsoft is actively trying to win souls while Embarcadero just sits and waits until developers come.

Instead of charging huge amounts of money for licences, Embarcadero should invest in students who are willing to use their products.

Answer 11

I am from Latvia, Rīga.

I learned a little bit of Turbo Pascal in school.

Then, in high school (Riga Technical University), we learned Borland Delphi and Borland C++. Most of practice (laboratory?) work on other subjects, such as Data structures, were performed in Pascal/Delphi.

Answer 12

In the Arabs countries especially in Saudi Arabia it was one of the best languages they were teaching in colleges but not any more, however, for my self i learned it Delphi by my self and i will never let it go.. :)

In the other side, Delphi still demanded by some of the biggest companies such as SAUDI ARAMCO ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Aramco )

Answer 13

I'm from the Philippines. As far as i know, i am the only Delphi-User here, never met one. I wish i could meet one here. Anyways, i love Pascal based languages - Delphi 7 or Delphi 2009. Delphi 3 was introduce by German Guest Speaker in our school when i was in First Year College, that's 1999. I was amazed and very interested with its shown features so i bought books to learn it - self study. I actually abandoned VB and FoxPro that time because of Delphi. I have developed more than 30 applications systems now, including Little-ERP System, POS, Accounting Systems, School Systems, Hospital Systems, Wholesales/Retail Systems, Recruitment Agencies, Travel Agencies, Lending Systems, Gasoline Station Systems, Freight & Cargo Systems, Payroll with Biometrics capabilities, Warehousing/Inventory Systems and many more...

The only thing that i notice is that few and peculiar programmers use Delphi because few knows how to teach it. As i said, humble but confident, Delphi Users can really make a fortune out of this Language.

Anything about Delphi, maybe i can help, you can Email me at [email protected]

JonDave

Answer 14

I am a current high school student in Canada, and I know that certain schools are still teaching Pascal.

My former high school taught using Turbo Pascal in a Grade 10 programming class (as of two years ago). That school teaches using C++ and Java in the higher Grades. Pascal is getting rarer though, and is being replaced by C++, Python, Java, and VB.

Answer 15

I am from China, and here Pascal is still taught in high schools, but for some but not all students.

However, the exam/competition held for high school students still use Turbo Pascal which is so old and it seems that Embarcadero never tries to show them how good Turbo Delphi is (maybe that's becaue Turbo Delphi disappears now).

In universities, C/C++ is still the king, while Java and C# can give you advantages at graduate.

I personally started in Delphi and now switch to C#.

Answer 16

I am from Russia. Delphi was huge in Russia in late 90s-early 2000s, and is still taught in an average university as a principal programming environment. The book stores are full of Pascal/Delphi stuff. In higher-profile universities, like Baumann, C/C++ is taught.

Answer 17

University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario) taught Pascal as the first year language from about 1987 to 1996 or so. THey switched to Java, and at some point, may have switched from that to something else.

I was not personally aware of any Canadian high schools that had computer science teachers that teach Pascal any more, but my high school (South Secondary, London) taught Commodore BASIC for the early 1980s, then Turbo Pascal for DOS when the switched to PCs around 1989.

Pascal is still considered suitable by the Ontario curriculum standards, which would allow almost any language, as far as I know, if it is what the teacher knows how to teach. I would expect to run into pockets of Visual Basic, and Java at most high-schools in Canada.

Efforts to enforce a single language across Ontario schools would be doomed by the teaching staff's variable set of skills and experience. But I don't doubt that we'll see Microsoft give some money to someone, to make C# into the "language they teach you in school". (sarcasm alert)

As I am Canadian, I do not know much about the USA. But from the book-store content, it is plain that Pascal (and delphi in particular) are not high-profile languages in either the USA or Canada anymore. I use Delphi all day at work, professionally, and it's a fabulous tool, but I do not think many students are learning it any more, in Canada or the US.

Answer 18

I didn't learn Pascal in school and didn't see a single line of Pascal code until several years later when a friend introduced me to Delphi 1 in 1995. Since then, I have used Oracle Designer 2000 (never again), Java, C# and even a little bit of VB (classic/script/.Net). I use C# regularly now, but Delphi is still my first choice for any development. More times than not, it's just the right tool for a given job.

I found some schools in the US that are teaching Delphi or Pascal. I tried to only include examples that are in the most recent course calendars, and if I couldn't find a calendar, ones that are in the site's course description list. I would look for more, but it's a little tedious.

I also found several Delphi specific courses in the UK and a handful in India, Bangladesh and South Africa. I didn't include these because the list is already a little long.

Enterprise State Community College, Enterprise, Alabama

• CIS 191 - INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SCIENCE I
• CIS 222 - ADVANCED PASCAL PROGRAMMING

Berkeley (EECS) Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Berkeley, California

• CS 9B - Pascal for Programmers

Glendale Community College, Glendale, California

• CSIS130 - Introduction to Algorithms with Pascal

Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles, California

• COSCI 106 - Beginning Pascal Programming

Pasadena City College, Pasadena, California

• CS 10 - PASCAL

Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, California

• CS 145P - Introduction To Data Structures

Mission College, Santa Clara, California

• CIS 004A - COMPUTER PROGRAMMING I (PASCAL)
• CIS 004B - COMPUTER PROGRAMMING II (PASCAL)
• CIS 036 - PASCAL PROGRAMMING
• CIS 171 - COMPUTER LAB: PASCAL
• CIS 171A - COMPUTER LAB: INTRODUCTION PROGRAMMING IN PASCAL
• CIS 171B - COMPUTER LAB: ADVANCED PASCAL

Los Angeles Mission College, Sylmar, California

• CoSci 406 - BEGINNING PASCAL PROGRAMMING
• CoSci 436 - INTRODUCTION TO DATA STRUCTURES

College of the Sequoias?, Visalia, California

• MATH 16 - COMPUTER SCIENCE I - PASCAL

Los Angeles Harbor College, Wilmington, California

• MATH 170 - Introduction to PASCAL

Seminole State College of Florida, Orlando, Florida

• CCP - Certified Computing Professional

Atlanta Technical College, Atlanta, Georgia

• CIS 257 - PASCAL PROGRAMMING
• ELC 204 - HIGH-LEVEL LANGUAGES

Truman College, Chicago, Illinois

• CIS 032 0107 - Introduction to PASCAL

Joliet Junior College, Joliet, Illinois

• CIS 136 - PASCAL Programming

University of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana

• CSCI-152 - Pascal Programming

Ivy Tech Community College, Muncie, Indiana

• CINS 124 - Pascal Programming

Midway College, Midway, Kentucky

• CS 280 - Pascal Programming I
• CS 380 - Pascal Programming II

University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi

• CSS 330 - Introduction to Programming
• CSS 340 - Advanced Computing Programming

University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey

• BINF7590 - Genetic Engineering, Protein Modeling and Drug Design
• BINF7592 - Computer Aided  Drug Design &QSAR/QSPR

New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico

• OECS 170 - PASCAL Programming I

State University of New York at Potsdam, Potsdam, New York

• CIS 102 - Introduction to Pascal Programming  

Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, Oklahoma

• CS 1513 - PASCAL PROGRAMMING
• CS 1523 - ADVANCED PASCAL PROGRAMMING
• CS 2510 - SEMINAR IN PROGRAMMING

Murray State College, Tishomingo, Oklahoma

• CS 2123 - Pascal Programming I
• CS 2223 - Advanced Pascal
• CS 2123 - Pascal Programming I
• CS 2223 - Advanced Pascal

Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas

• CSCE 110 - Programming I

University of Houston-Clear Lake, Houston, Texas

• CSCI 3132.01 - Programming in Pascal

Texarkana College, Texarkana, Texas

• BCIS1312 or COSC1318 - Pascal Programming
• COSC1319 - Assembly Language
• GAME 1343 - Game & Simulation Programming I:

Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, Utah

• CS 2510 - Intermediate Prog In Delphi

Virginia's Community Colleges, , Virginia

• ITP 156 - PASCAL Programming I
• EGR 125 - Introduction to Engineering Methods
• EGR 127 - Introduction to Computer Programming
• EGR 126 - Computer Programming for Engineers

Answer 19

Delphi is also taught in schools/universities throughout Brazil. Also Delphi and Turbo Pascal are used in state run high schools and colleges in Russia. You will also find Delphi used in some non-computer science departments where the students are focused on other majors and use programming in a "situational" or "occupational" way - for example, the Geography students at Ferris State University in Wisconsin use Delphi for their maps projects.

Answer 20

Here in Mexico is the same story: Turbo Pascal was used by teachers as the first language to teach programming until mid 90's, then switched to Java or VB (:of)

Maybe Java is just more appropiate language as it is supposed to be "open" and "free" and there is a 20% of the programmers around the globe using it... but I learned with Basic, then Pascal, then I did step over Delphi, and that is kind of common curve around here, ( besides clipper -> foxpro -> ¿? )

I don't know about schools teaching Delphi right now. And no Borland/CodeGear/Embarcadero did something to change this, neither schools seems to be concerned to switch...

Answer 21

I'm from Singapore. Did my university in Australia. Was taught Delphi 1 as a first year unit (1996), but already knew some Pascal before. Now I think they only teaches Java / C#... what a pity!

Started my first job in Perth using D3, then D5. Back to Singapore, got a job doing D3 and D5, moved on to several other jobs, all Delphi related. Now in IBM, soon to be starting on a project that will be migrating a legacy system written in D7 to D2010.

But I have to admit that it is hard to get Delphi jobs in Singapore, if any. I hope to move on to Java, purely for financial reason, but will always be using Delphi for any Windows native app.

Delphi ROCKS and long live Delphi!