Message: 1 From: Jeffrey Elkner <jeff@elkner.net> To: edu-sig@python.org Date: 29 Sep 2001 14:47:46 -0400 Subject: [Edu-sig] measuring python...

Hi All!

I'm trying to get together a master's thesis and was hoping to do something related to Python's suitability as a language for teaching programming. I was thinking of comparing Python, C++, and Java solutions to common first year computer science problems in terms of length and readability.

Comparing length is not a problem. "Readability" on the other hand is not easy to define in any quantifiable way. I was thinking of trying something like "tokens per line".

Any thoughts?

You may take a look at the contest which is documented in short form in english: [Prechelt 2000a] PRECHELT, Lutz: An empirical comparison of C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, Rexx and Tcl. In: IEEE Computer 33 (2000), October, Nr. 10, S. 23-29. - http://wwwipd.ira.uka.de/~prechelt/Biblio/jccpprt_computer2000.pdf [Prechelt 2000b] PRECHELT, Lutz: An empirical comparison of C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, Rexx and Tcl for a search/string-processing program / Fakultät für Informatik, Universität Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe, March 2000b ( 2000-5). - Forschungsbericht. http://wwwipd.ira.uka.de/~prechelt/Biblio/jccpprtTR.pdf 34 Seiten ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ Another interesting article regarding teaching informatics and look a apropriate language: [Böszörményi 1998] BöSZöRMéNYI, László: Why Java is not my favorite first-course language. In: Software - Concepts & Tools 19 (1998), S. 141-145. - http://www.ifi.uni-klu.ac.at/ITEC/Publications/showabs?1998-0033-Boes [Böszörményi 2001] BöSZöRMéNYI, László: JAVA für Anfänger? Warum JAVA nicht meine Lieblingssprache für einen Anfängerkurs ist. In: LOG IN 21 (2001), Nr. 1, S. 14-19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ The series from David Merz regarding functional programming [Mertz 2001a] MERTZ, David: Charming Python: Even More Functional Programming in Python. In: IBM developerWorks (2001), June. - Series: Charming Python 19 http://gnosis.cx/publish/tech_index.html http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-prog3.html [Mertz 2001b] MERTZ, David: Charming Python: Functional programming in Python. In: IBM developerWorks (2001), April. - Series: Charming Python 13 http://gnosis.cx/publish/tech_index.html http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-prog.html [Mertz 2001c] MERTZ, David: Charming Python: More Functional Programming in Python. In: IBM developerWorks (2001), March. - Series: Charming Python 16 http://gnosis.cx/publish/tech_index.html http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-prog2.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ I'm working on an article for http://seciii.cs.uni-dortmund.de/ July, 23 2002 which will be presented at the german afternoon -- so it will be in german: Welche Programmiersprache unterstützt meine Konzepte für den Informatikunterricht? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ The above mentioned articles where useful for me, when I was first assembling material for the talk. Ludger Humbert