Jonathan Ellis wrote:
On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 16:14:22 -0700, "Shane Hathaway"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
I think practice with theory increases the students' ability to learn
theory, but the risk of slipping into too many practical details is
real. There must be some way to avoid that risk.
Teach in Python.
Interesting point. Computer science courses could cover more ground
that way. It appears that the general belief among computer science
instructors is that they should use the most popular languages, like
Java and C++, to incidentally teach practice while they're teaching
theory. That's a mistake because it's teaching a largely unrelated
practice. It would be better to use a language that's more optimal for
teaching, and have students practice applications of the theory being
taught.
Java and C++ should be in some kind of language design course. The
course would have many practical applications because so many software
packages have their own mini-languages. Students should see for
themselves the results of language design decisions.
Shane
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