Jason writes -
This might make some of you cringe.. Judging from the online samples it looks like it might be a good book to hand to kids [us all] who are just getting into programming.
Would be cool if a Python version were available. I'd love to hear your reactions.
Have not looked much at the samples chapter, but did look at the author interviews at http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2003/06/18/head_first.html I am sympathetic with much of it. Especially that there does seem to be a true effort is defy expectations about how this kind of thing might be done. And in emphasizing: """We've known forever (at least since Socrates anyway) that learning is at its weakest when the learner is a passive receiver of information. The learner has to be engaged and actively flexing some neurons""" I translate this into an objection to doing *too* much for the student. I don't want a GUI doing too much of the "thinking" - for example. It might help a student get to a satisfying end result that can be called a "program", but how much did they actually *learn* in getting there. I won't press this point as to programming, but will limit my point to to the GUI based dynamic geometry applications - where I am more confident about my point. But I admit I suspect the point translates somehow to programming education. On the other hand, I get a little queasy when the author go to: """Perhaps the worst of all assumptions a teacher or an author can make is to assume the learner is intrinsically motivated and intellectually curious about the content.""" I guess I am stubborn on this point, or arrogant, or something. In that I have the luxuxry of having no interest in presenting material to learners who have no intellectual curiosity about the subject matter I am presenting. One nice thing about the development of the Net (and which I associate with Open Source), is that one can contribute by making the exactly opposite assumption. That one's effort will be found by those motivated by a curiosity. And one can assume that curiosity as a starting point. I, at any rate, have learned much from resources that assumed that from the beginning,therefore forgoing the seduction, and getting on with it. "It", being the transfer of knowledge. An act of generosity, really. If one has something to teach, and is willing to teach it - one should hold one's ground, it seems to me. I like to think Socrates might agree. Art