On Sat, Oct 28, 2017 at 1:44 PM, David MacQuigg <macqu...@gmail.com> wrote:
<< ... >> I just hate to see what could have been a critical mass of users offering > an alternative to Java, a much better alternative as an introduction to CS, > losing that opportunity because there is no agreement on a simple > alternative. Oh well, most students will end up with Java anyway, so maybe > learning with all those useless semicolons will make the transition easier. > > Thank you, yes, I share your view that Ruby feels more like Perl and markets itself versus Python with somewhat hollow slogans like "Ruby makes programmers feel happy" (it's all about how it "feels"). AP CS seems stuck in the crufty past given a main rationale was to pick a language actually taught at the college level. That used to be Java, but is now Python so much more so. https://www.quora.com/Why-does-AP-Computer-Science-A-teach-Java-and-not-Python I'm always in favor of learning at least a couple languages, even if #2 is mainly for contrast. One's mastery of X improves when one has experience with ~X. Learn Python and Ruby both? But learn one to a higher level? Clojure? As this other thread points out, there's a new AP CS Principles course (CSP) which Code.org and others are tackling, in principle language agnostic. JavaScript is another contender as a first language, especially in light of all the recent revisions (making it seem more like Python :-D). https://computinged.wordpress.com/2014/08/03/python-is-the-most-popular-intro-language-but-what-about-csp/ Since the posting above (2014) -- about how college intro courses don't use JavaScript as a first langauge --came at least Stanford's doing so: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/24/stanford_tests_javascript_in_place_of_java/ I think Harvard's CS50 is a good example of how Python has replaced Java in terms of sharing the big picture. I refer people to the lectures on Youtube, Week 8 in particular. https://youtu.be/5aP9Bl9hcqI Kirby
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