sarahmei
I was delineating two modes of failure. The first, and most obvious, is when your program won't run at all and you get a syntax error. That's what happens when you misspell something outside the quotes.
But if you misspell something inside the quotes, you get the second mode, in which your program runs but you get incorrect behavior.
For us this isn't a huge difference; they're both bugs. But for the girls it was huge. If their program won't run, it's busted, but if it runs but isn't quite right, well, that's what Microsoft charges $$$$ for.
I had to admit they had a point.
"it is considered better to learn it the hardway[sic] first"
Blatantly false. For a certain narrow class of people, this is the best way to learn. There are hundreds of other ways, and some of the people who have a different preferred style would make great programmers.
"Colleges who have switched to Java for example are producing graduates that are having more difficult times in the "real world.""
Also blatantly false. CS programs have always churned out a lot of mediocre programmers, a handful of good ones, and a few brilliant ones. Only the language has changed.