Has the Pascal Experiment Failed ? or Can A Good Language make Good Programmers ?

In the early 1980`s the authors electrical engineering school switched their initial teaching language from Fortran to Pascal. One of the primary factors leading to this choice was the belief that a well-structured language such as Pascal would inherently lead to the students writing, as a matter of course, well-structured code. The students learning Pascal are separated into two degree courses, electrical engineering (EE) and computer systems engineering (CSE). The EE students complete only basic computing and software engineering material, whereas the CSE students cover a much more intensive software engineering curriculum. Experience over the last decade has shown that the EE students are not capable of consistently writing good code once they have completed the software subjects, whereas the CSE students are significantly more capable. It has become progressively apparent that the EE students cannot be forced into writing good code by restricting the scope of their tools. Rather th..