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[-] iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com 10 points 4 months ago

I'm curious why you think Python is unsuitable. Both of my kids picked up Python pretty easily.

[-] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 18 points 4 months ago
  • object-oriented (this is their FIRST proper programming language - they don't even know how to write loops yet and you want us to teach them OOP at the same time?! And as it turns out, I had one student who literally could NOT work out how to use a loop - kept writing 20 variables for 20 iterations. i.e. her variables never varied!)
  • variables are weakly-typed (use it for anything, whether it's what you first used it for or not, Python doesn't care)
  • indentation has to be exact (i.e. no brackets, just exact indentation). I had one student whose program wasn't working, and it even took ME a while to find what was wrong with it (a missing space).

I think there was more, but that's what I remember off the top of my head. If it was up to me then I would've used Pascal - that's what it's designed for! But at least C# has strongly-typed variables, and doesn't care about your indentation (and unfortunately there was no non-OOP language choice available - I'm not sure how this got in the curriculum when every teacher knows you only teach one concept at a time). As I said, many other teachers felt the same way, but couldn't get it past their school admin's.

[-] uthredii@programming.dev 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

object oriented

Python does have OOP but you are not at all forced to use it. You can write code in a functional or even procedural style.

typing

I do hate that python doesent have proper support for typing but I think weakly typed variables will actually help beginners as it is less to think about to start off with.

indentation

I think there are pros and cons here. In other languages it is considered good style to use indentation anyway.

I'm sure it is difficult to teach a large class like that though. It was hard enough for me to learn with a much more favourable teacher to student ratio than you probably have. Sorry but honestly I do sympathise with admin as well.

[-] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 6 points 4 months ago

Python does have OOP but you are not at all forced to use it.

Not as an individual, but I'm talking about a situation precisely where the individual choices of teachers are ignored, in some cases by school admins, in some cases by faculty choices. Fortunately I also ran a computing club, in which I was autonomous with how I ran it, and I taught my computing club students C#/MAUI... but even then still saw some of the issues you run into with teaching students. e.g. I told them to install Visual Studio ready for next week, showed them where it was, what workloads to install, and then the next week one of the students had installed Blend for Visual Studio, not Visual Studio. "Look, it has Visual Studio in the name!". (sigh)

I think weakly typed variables will actually help beginners as it is less to think about to start off with

No, that's exactly the problem to start with. Another rule of teaching (see below for the full list I'm quoting these from) is "never let the first impression be a wrong one". If you let students think they can use variables for anything, then you run into problems when they can't. This is why teaching them with strong types first is better - they learn you need to be careful with how to use them, THEN maybe you can let them have some more freedom like Python allows.

In other languages it is considered good style to use indentation anyway

Yes, but in those languages it's optional. In Python it's mandatory, and if someone's code isn't working it's far easier to spot a missing bracket than a missing space.

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this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
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