Bengt Richter wrote:
BTW, what makes you think any self-respecting "scientist" wouldn't be insulted
by the idea of your spoon-feeding them a dumbed-down programming equivalent of
"See Spot run"?
Am I right thinking that your dream 3 R's curriculum starts with
"Stately, plump Buck Mulligan" and Pólya Enumeration Theorem?
Most of them have no previous programming experience, mind you.
Of course, you may be a suffering victim of circumstances, I don't know.
They're not so bad: I deliver the lectures (1.5 h/week), and there are
also laboratory classes (1.5 h/week). During one semester, most of
Python topics are covered.
Fortunately,
Python is not that hard, and rapidly becomes fun unless the initial experience
is structured against discovering the expressive power that is so enjoyable.
I wholeheartedly agree with you in this point. I'm sure my students
would appreciate being taught Python instead of Pascal if they had
a chance to compare them.
If you want the effect of print x, y, fn(z), etc without spaces, why don't you
just write a function that will let you spell it simply, like
Excellent advice, provided that you already know the concept
of user-defined functions.
IMO teachers should lead their students into contact with reality,
not insulate them from it with delusionary simplifications that
they will have to unlearn in order to progress.
I'm not sure what you mean by "delusionary simplifications",
but I hope you meant nothing insulting. They already know how to
use string interpolation, and as soon as they learn how to mutate
the contents of a list, I'll tell them to use looped .append()
followed by .join() instead of looped string concatenation,
and explain why.
Best regards,
Marcin
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