I am going to be teaching "Introduction to Python Programming" in the Fall at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, CA. This is a 5 quarter unit class for students who already know one programming language.
I have been teaching programming for 20 years now, including Java and C++ as of late. As I prepare this class, I have some questions that I I am hoping you can shed some light on. 1) Programming Style while 1: x = next() if not x: break I have never allowed students to use break or continue in any programming class I have taught. I think of this type of code as belonging with the dreaded GOTO. I find that students who are having difficulty writing complex conditions in a loop use multiple if's with break's inside the loop instead. Also, it is MUCH easier to read a loop if the condition for continuing in the loop is right up at the top of the loop where it belongs. I have always thought of break and continue as hacks that are not compatible with structured programming techniques. The only exception is using break in a switch in C, C++ and Java. However, all Python books seem to contain sample programs like this one. Do you think that code like this is desirable? 2) Since this is an introductory class, I am tempted to leave out "optional" topics like argument matching modes, walk, map, filter, reduce, apply. Do you think these are required for any Python programmer? 3) I need to teach a GUI in this class. I would like something that is easy, standard, and multi-platform. I am considering Tkinter and Jython. Any opnions on this? Thanks for any answers you might have. -Elaine Haight __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor