On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 09:30:50AM -0700, David MacQuigg wrote: >> We consider pseudocode "self-explanatory" to those who already know >> the syntax of a similar language. But it is not so, any more than >> mousing and icons is "intuitive" for those who have never seen them.
That is emminently reasonable but I'm not sure it is true. My children seemed to pick up using a mouse without any instruction IIRC. Geometry, motion & pictures seem to tap a very primitive part of our brains...much deeper than the symbology of algebra and pseudocode. I wonder if there are methods of communication that don't need much explanation because that is how are brains are naturally wired. > It's interesting to speculate whether there > will ever be another major improvement in programming, a step beyond > Python, or if Python will simply incorporate any good ideas that come > along (as it did with our @ syntax). I would bet on the latter. Well that is exciting for me as I know Python and don't want to learn a new language every 3 months. cs _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
