On Thu, 26 May 2005, Radenski, Atanas wrote:
> > It is fine and good to learn a single language, but this is not > > computer science. A single language is just a tool. It is necessary to > > learn several languages in order to have an idea of what computer > > science actually means. > > I believe that introductory computer science should be taught with more > than one language. Certainly, teaching several languages poses its own > problems. I believe two languages are just right for CS1/2 courses. My > personal choice has been Python for CS1 and Java for CS2. In this way, > students get familiar with the two principal programming language > cultures: interpreted languages and compiled languages. Hi Atanas, Rather than contrasting languages based on compiled vs. interpreted, I think a comparative course based on the treatment of types would be interesting. I've always been curious; has anyone heard of an approach that uses Python and OCaml? The two languages have such a different take on the value of typing; Python does type checking at runtime, and OCaml at compile time. _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig