On Nov 19, 3:44 am, Kay Schluehr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 17 Nov., 14:46, Brian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What have I missed?
Microsoft has a free download version of Visual Studio which you can install in one go that has basically everything you might want to cover in the first 2 or 3 programming classes built in. Also, when it comes to making things easy the magic "intellisense" in VS cannot be beat, and stricter typing rules tend to keep'em out of trouble. I've seen moderately skilled programmers get confused about list.append versus list.extend -- it wouldn't happen in C#. I would suggest that Python might be better for more advanced classes like data structures because Python cuts out all those declarations that get in the way of understanding. For example you could implement a binary tree in Python in 5 minutes of typing, providing "just the facts, M'am", whereas even with intellisense help it would take 15 minutes in C# and the students would be totally lost in the details when you were done. It's also possible that once you break'em in a bit beginner students would make better progress with more advanced concepts by making use of the interactive interpreter. I've taught java and C# where the students freeze in abject fear when they confront their first array -- Python lists are much less intimidating at the interactive prompt. At the beginning, however, I would agree that C# has some serious advantages. I don't see anything wrong in teaching a bit of both, tho. Students also like to learn languages which they can find in the "help wanted" section very easily ;). -- Aaron Watters === http://www.xfeedme.com/nucular/pydistro.py/go?FREETEXT=perverse+zone -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
