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I often wonder how it'd be if AP Computer Science was based in python. I took AP Comp Sci in high school with C++. I aced the exam. Yet I cannot program crap i
by zaidf 17y ago
I often wonder how it'd be if AP Computer Science was based in python.
I took AP Comp Sci in high school with C++. I aced the exam. Yet I cannot program crap in it and always felt limited. I did feel like I'd "graduated" in some ways after being able to say "yes I can do C++" at least for couple months after the class ended.
On the other hand if I learned python, I could do sooo many useful things a lot earlier in my programming career.
May be someone can elaborate more on why C++/Java is better than pyton for AP Comp Sci. I'd like to think it provides a better intro even if it's a pain in the ass. Am I right? On the other hand, I do think it discourages lots of people that are on the edge. I had friends who were genuinely trying to learn C++ and programming in class but had to really struggle. They left with the impression that doing simple stuff is a very difficult. In that respect, C++/Java communicate a very wrong sense of what is possible with little effort through python etc.
I know if I my first programming experience was in C++/Java I'd run away in no time. It doesn't strike me as a coincidence that some of the best programmers started with BASIC. Yet we try to dump C++/Java into high schoolers who have not typed a line of code before.
- bootload 17y ago"... May be someone can elaborate more on why C++/Java is better than pyton for AP Comp Sci ..." "c" rather than cpp because it's "lingua franca of programmers" ~ http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CollegeAdvice.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CollegeAdvice.html
- sgoraya 17y agoC++ was the language taught at my university - I was indifferent at the time because it was what they taught and I started writing practice apps in C++ the summer before I started school. As soon as I went to work for a game developer (my first industry job), everything was C and my thinking about programming languages evolved much more than when I was at Uni. I was left thinking why C++? The year after I left school, the department switched to Java. I guess they know best!
- Darmani 17y agoAP teaches what a plurality of colleges teach. Ten years ago, most colleges taught C/C++, and so did AP; when the balance switched to Java, AP switched as well. I heard earlier today that CMU will be switching its three basic programming courses from Java and C to Python within a few years (and changing its mid-level algorithms course from Java to ML). With CMU and MIT both teaching Python, you can bet a cascade of lower-tier CS departments will follow, and then AP will as well.
- swolchok 17y agoUMich's new Informatics major (AFAICT, it's like Java-school CS) is doing Python for the intro programming course, and grad students in the School of Information also do Python. http://www.pythonlearn.com http://www.pythonlearn.com and http://www.si502.com/ http://www.si502.com/ respectively. Don't know whether these are good courses; in some sense I think it must be hard to have a bad introductory programming course.