[Edu-sig] Interesting thread...

[kirby urner]

On 8/3/07, kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> For CS teachers interested in matters Pythonic:
>
> http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/1840
>
> Kirby
>
>
Providing some of my own feedback:

There's this "MIT mystique" where part of the fascination is
all the Hogwartsian bureaucracy (the attribute "Kafkaesque"
comes to mind):  Course VI, with such as 6.001 and 6.099,
unchanged in 20 years.

That these courses are "barely doable" just adds to their
flamboyance.    Tinkering with the core language mix, therefore,
is *significant* (if you're buying into the MIT mystique, which
most of us do (e.g. see my "Mayan thread" @ Math Forum)).

I like the idea of controlling a robot, but question whether
turtle "move" commands will be needed.  The tux droid has
wings that flap, eyes the open and close... but it just spins
on its butt, doesn't walk (apropos penguins, who maybe do
it a lot, but not very well).

Easier for computer lab use, a stationary bot.

import tux
tux.cmd.lefteye_open()
tux.rotate_on_butt(3)  # quarter turns

stuff like that.

Beyond that, I think MIT is banking on its students being
highly competitive and questioning this Pythonic approach.
They'll learn other languages, as an expression of their
academic freedom to do so.

What are we losing by moving to Python?  Lambda calculus
rears from the ocean, a Legendary Beast.

What if we forget about lambda?  Alonso Church et al?

"Guido is a lamba hater" someone warns.

Reminds me of pleasant chats in greener pastures with
Tim Peters, about "little lambda" (Kirby:  "we like our
lambdas little, make do sans the big woolly Scheme
sheep").

Kirby
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