[Edu-sig] Python as a first language for computer sciencist

[Brad Miller]

On Oct 17, 2005, at 12:45 PM, John Zelle wrote:

> Carlos,
>
> I doubt that you'll get much disagreement on this list about Python
> being an excellent first language choice. Hence, there is unlikely  
> to be
>   much of a "discussion." I wrote a paper titled "Python as a First
> Language" back in 1998, you can find it at:
> http://mcsp.wartburg.edu/zelle/python
>

Carlos,

John also has an excellent textbook:  Python Programming: An  
Introduction to Computer Science.  We are in our second year of using  
this book in our CS1 class and are very happy with it.  Because of  
its power and simplicity we have found that students enjoy the class  
and can do more interesting projects in their first course than they  
could with Java.

For example my students are now (in week 7 of the semester) writing  
functions to enlarge images, smooth the enlarged images, and do edge  
detection on the images the image library is so simple that the  
students can really concentrate on the problem solving parts of the  
exercise.  For me these are great introductory exercises that get  
them using nested loops, simple conditionals, and functions.  I think  
the students have more fun and are more successful when they can see  
the results of their work visually.

We also use Python in our CS2 course which focuses on data  
structures, and one of our colleagues is using Python in his advanced  
data structures course this year.  The great thing about using Python  
in a data structures course is that there is almost a one-to-one  
mapping from pseudocode to Python.  So the students can really see  
the how the concepts get mapped to code without all the extra  
overhead that a language like Java imposes.

Of course we also teach and use Java but we don't introduce our  
students to Java until the third course in our introductory  
sequence.  The nice thing about holding off on Java until the third  
course is that the students now know enough computer science that we  
can work on bigger and more interesting problems while they are  
learning Java.  In addition I can now use Python to compare and  
contrast as I introduce new language concepts in Java.


Brad
--
Brad Miller, PhD
Assistant Professor
Luther College
http://www.cs.luther.edu/~bmiller
jabber:  bnmnetp at jabber.org

> Carlos Eduardo Sotelo Pinto wrote:
>
>> Hi people
>> i was making a researching about python for computer
>> science students as a first language, and it coul be
>> good in Peruvian Universities and Colleges, may you
>> have some experiences, or articles or ideas about it.
>> Coul you send me to my personal email address.
>> Also I propose to you to began a discussion about this
>> topic.
>>
>> I think in my personal opinion, python could be better
>> for students, for one so imoprtant reazon: Python is
>> clearly and powerfull; and because of it, students
>> just think in solve problems and learning programming,
>> and the language could be an excellent easy learning
>> progamming tool. Also teachers can use the power of
>> python for making good problems for the students.
>>
>>
>
> Based on my actual experience, I can say that Python _is_ a much  
> better
> first language choice than C, C++, Java, or Visual Basic. It has  
> most of
> the advantages of Scheme, but with a smoother transition to more
> traditional languages. More and more CS programs are discovering  
> the joy
> of teaching Python first. So far, I've not heard of any program that
> tried Python and then went back to something like C++ or Java.
>
> Incidentally, I think Python is a marvelous tool throughout the CS
> curriculum. It's a language that gets out of your way so that you can
> concentrate on fundamental concepts. I even use Python in my Op  
> Systems
> class, something I'm frequently told Python isn't good for. Not true.
> Python is (arguably) the simplest vehicle that allows my students to
> program directly with underlying Posix system calls. It's simpler than
> doing systems programming in C or C++. To say nothing of trying to
> access the OS in Java... While I would not try to write an OS in  
> Python,
> it sure is a lot easier for teaching _about_ them. That is, I am using
> the programming as a learning tool, not trying to teach them how to
> program an OS.
>
> --John
>
> -- 
> John M. Zelle, Ph.D.             Wartburg College
> Professor of Computer Science    Waverly, IA
> john.zelle at wartburg.edu          (319) 352-8360
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