From: Todd Whittaker <todd@thewhittakers.org> To: Python in education <edu-sig@python.org> Subject: [Edu-sig] Executable pseudocode / executable flowcharts

Hey all,

I can make a good case in education for Python as a first language because, as everyone claims, it it executable pseudo-code. I know it. I believe it. I've made a case for it. But, where I work, our students need more than just pseudo-code. What we need is a tool that lets students create executable flowcharts as well.

At http://www-iiuf.unifr.ch/sde/projects/kalt/NSD.html there is a small tool which lets you draw nassi-shneiderman diagrams and exports them to a file with pascal or c-code. I think this is really a neat little program, useful when teaching procedural programming at introductory level (control structures). Too bad it isn't geared for python where the translation between code and the nassi-shneiderman-diagram is very transparent due to the simple code formatting rules of python. If I had the time, I would pick something similar as a programming project in python. With such an editor you could also show your students that at the level of procedures python and pascal (and C, ...) don't differ much, its all the same kind of basic structure. I've also seen that for some beginners a flowchart is a great help in understanding the nature of an algorithm. Christian Mascher