Programming lectures without laptops work great (though it may help for the lecturer has a laptop and can show examples). If you want the students to follow alo

Programming lectures without laptops work great (though it may help for the lecturer has a laptop and can show examples). If you want the students to follow along, that's what lab section is for (at least where I did undergrad, most of the programming classes had one). I've TA'd some of those lab sections, and there are a shocking number of ways the students can fail to manage to follow along with the examples without extensive hand-holding. Which they absolutely should get, and which they absolutely need a computer for, but a lecture with dozens of students and a unit of theory to get through is not the time for it.