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This. The computer science degree I did started off in the first term with us building computers on an FPGA by mapping out the logic gates, then programming it in assembly. Learning how to program in C followed this.

It's a good way of helping people with no programming knowledge get past the stage of "what are those magic colourful words you type that somehow make the computer do things?".

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I think this is an awful way of learning for beginning CS students. It will scare off too many good kids who think this is all that CS will ever be. Top down is better. Bottom up is only going to be good for people who adore computer architecture guts and want to start at the bottom from first principals. Most kids want to use computers as a tool and not learn it's atomic structure.

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