<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div><br></div><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br>David MacQuigg wrote:<br>>We need lots of examples where programming is useful to non-programmers. I already mentioned the real estate agent <br>> needing to digest some data from the property appraisers office. For the shop teacher: How about a homeowner wanting <br>> to lay tiles, avoid wastage, and slivers that look bad along the edge. If you know Python, it is quicker to write a little <br>> program than find one, purchase and install it, read the manual, struggle with a bunch of stuff you don't really need, <br>> and maybe not get what you want in the end. I can think of lots of examples in engineering, but
they are not ordinary <br>> problems that would seem relevant to high school students. What we need is a collection of relevant problems, <br>> easily solved with a quickie program.<br><br>These are not so easy to find. For many of these types of problems, creating a spreadsheet is more
efficient that writing a program. (Why re-invent the wheel?) One could argue that having more people know how to use Excel is a good thing and goes part of the way to having a population that's more savvy at computers/math/problem-solving. That's another discussion. <br><br>But the
criteria of "relevant problems, easily solved with a quickie program"
is tough to meet. Not much gets through that filter. Problems that are relevant and complicated enough to be interesting usually require a moderately complex program to solve them. The non-programmer has to make at least some investment in learning the basics (variables, loops, control structures, operators, lists, I/O) before taking on even the simplest problem-solving using a program. So we need to convince people that it's: a) not that hard and b) worth it.<br><br><br>Warren Sande.<br><br></div></div></div></body></html>