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Don't get me wrong, Python is head and shoulders above Java/C# or C/C++ as a teaching language. The complaint is that, as the educator, lab/tutorial time is bei
by BadInformatics 6y ago
Don't get me wrong, Python is head and shoulders above Java/C# or C/C++ as a teaching language. The complaint is that, as the educator, lab/tutorial time is being wasted on trivial syntax issues that would be non-existent given a more lenient parser or better tooling (preferably the latter).
- franklyt 6y agoI’m not sure that statement is accurate, I could see an argument being made for C being a really good learning language.
- aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA 6y agoIt would be the best possible learning language, if your next language was going to be assembly.
- franklyt 6y agoIs that a crack about complexity? C doesn’t have very many features.
- aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA 6y agoI’m saying that the C machine model would be an ideal introduction to pointers and registers and bit manipulation, and you could compare a C program with its compiled disassembly. Later you could get into in-line assembly and even processor intrinsics.
- franklyt 6y agoAlright, I see. Another good candidate is golang. I’m going to think on that one a bit more.
- BeetleB 6y agoIf your goal is low level programming, yes. If your goal is understanding data structures, algorithms, etc, then C is hideous. Explaining function prototypes, include headers, very unfriendly I/O, and I already mentioned the horrible syntax for for loops. There's a reason most of the data structures/algorithms were in a second course at my university: It's because it took most of one semester for students to get a handle on the very basics of C syntax.