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I've always thought that every highschooler should be taught the basics of programming with an easy language like Python instead. That really is a superpower in

by tapia 5y ago

I've always thought that every highschooler should be taught the basics of programming with an easy language like Python instead. That really is a superpower in a lot more contexts.

underdeserver 5y ago
Yes, but often different contexts. Let's say my volunteer org wants to keep track of events, who volunteered in them, etc. and wants to give an award to the volunteer who gave the most hours. How do you do that in Python? Why would you?
- tapia 5y ago
  For me, Excel is a tool mostly for entering data manually. In the case you described, it would be good for that purpose. I suppose you would have a column for each volunteer and then just enter data. Then you can read the file with python (pandas) and make a sum over the columns and give the one with most hours. Of course this case is also easy to do in Excel, however, the idea is that if you know more powerful tools (programming in general), then you will be able to do other things that otherwise you would regard as more time-consuming. Maybe you want then to give different awards for age ranges. And if you have too many volunteers then it would not be so easy any more in Excel, but in python you would just know how to do it.
  - lanstin 5y ago
    It is also a reasonable output format. I have written more than one Python thing that ended up by generating an Excel which I then emailed to people. It was imperfect but saved me a lot of “can you make a graph blah blah blah” type work.
Icathian 5y ago
That's becoming more common in the US. My spouse teaches middle school STEM and programming is part of the curriculum, beginning with Scratch JR and working up to Python and JavaScript. It's not ubiquitous yet, but it's coming along.
IshKebab 5y ago
They are in the UK though. I feel like Python is a poor choice these days though. Typescript would make more sense.
- Akronymus 5y ago
  Yeah, typesafety alone makes a HUGE difference. Personally, I'd go to something like haskell or f# though, because of a even better type system IMO. Altough, for learning it, typescript is probably easier and more applicable in the real world.

by tapia 5y ago

I've always thought that every highschooler should be taught the basics of programming with an easy language like Python instead. That really is a superpower in a lot more contexts.

underdeserver 5y ago

Yes, but often different contexts. Let's say my volunteer org wants to keep track of events, who volunteered in them, etc. and wants to give an award to the volunteer who gave the most hours. How do you do that in Python? Why would you?

tapia 5y ago
For me, Excel is a tool mostly for entering data manually. In the case you described, it would be good for that purpose. I suppose you would have a column for each volunteer and then just enter data. Then you can read the file with python (pandas) and make a sum over the columns and give the one with most hours. Of course this case is also easy to do in Excel, however, the idea is that if you know more powerful tools (programming in general), then you will be able to do other things that otherwise you would regard as more time-consuming. Maybe you want then to give different awards for age ranges. And if you have too many volunteers then it would not be so easy any more in Excel, but in python you would just know how to do it.
- lanstin 5y ago
  It is also a reasonable output format. I have written more than one Python thing that ended up by generating an Excel which I then emailed to people. It was imperfect but saved me a lot of “can you make a graph blah blah blah” type work.

Icathian 5y ago

That's becoming more common in the US. My spouse teaches middle school STEM and programming is part of the curriculum, beginning with Scratch JR and working up to Python and JavaScript. It's not ubiquitous yet, but it's coming along.

IshKebab 5y ago

They are in the UK though. I feel like Python is a poor choice these days though. Typescript would make more sense.

Akronymus 5y ago
Yeah, typesafety alone makes a HUGE difference. Personally, I'd go to something like haskell or f# though, because of a even better type system IMO. Altough, for learning it, typescript is probably easier and more applicable in the real world.