None, so skip them. That's the cool part, algos don't necessarily require strings. Realize he's proposing first years where you have to LARP that they don't e

None, so skip them. That's the cool part, algos don't necessarily require strings. Realize he's proposing first years where you have to LARP that they don't even know what an if-then-else construct is, or what is a function, or what is a loop, or what is recursion, or what is the concept of a memory map, or what is the concept of data or memory locations having a type (like float, long int, etc), or what is the concept of a variable. In 2016 most of them probably know, but schools feel the need to pretend. Also non-majors wanting a code experience will need an intro. This will make "real C programmers" very annoyed because OS code requires "real C skills" not a training wheels subset of C, but oh well. You can't really expect first year students to write OS code anyway. One hidden advantage is it would take enormous effort for a noob to put a C program on the internet, so this protects them from themselves until they pick up things in later higher level classes along the lines of buffer overflow protection and GIGO concept and unit testing and so on. If you teach them what is a variable, using framework-of-the-week, they're just going to get themselves or an employer powned thinking they know what they're doing after one class.