[Edu-sig] A case against GUIs in intro CS :-)

[Chuck Allison]

Hello Toby,

Saturday, June 4, 2005, 1:50:30 AM, you wrote:

TD> On 6/3/05 11:00 AM, "Chuck Allison" <chuck at freshsources.com> wrote:

>> I think VB is the absolute
>> worst way to introduce programming,

TD> Worse than COBOL? Or the C pre-processor? :-)

Well, worse than what is being used today. These aren't on the plate.

>> and emphasizing GUI in a first exposure to computing is a mistake.

TD> My feeling is that it was not so much GUI-first as design-first that made
TD> the VB course I taught so interesting. By drawing a GUI first, you are doing
TD> some design, and even making decisions about certain variables and data
TD> structures. Your goal is clear: you want to write a program that implements
TD> the GUI. And it's not just the visuals that students would work out before
TD> writing code, but they also thought about the interaction, and how the
TD> interface should behave. It makes programming very goal-oriented.

Teaching design early is a good thing. What I object to
over-emphasizing GUIs is that newbies feel that 1) Event-driven
programming is the only way to go, and 2) if there isn't a GUI, you're
not programming. I am reacting to a strong contingent that has been in
my face a lot. Thee are many who really believe this. GUI has it's
place, though, as I have suggested.

There are actually subtle dangers in event-driven design itself. I
heartily suggest everyone read Miro Samek's "Who Moved My State",
C/C++ Users Journal, April 2003. He says it much better than I can,
and he's one who Really Knows.

TD> I more commonly hear students complain that CS doesn't do a good job of
TD> preparing them for a career in software engineering. That it is too focused
TD> on esoteric theory, and that too many (university) faculty hold their noses
TD> when writing programs.

I have heard this too, but my college is not one of those. We cater to
industry, while not skimping on theory.

-- 
Best regards,
 Chuck