[Edu-sig] Procedural front end for Zelle's graphics.py

[Brian Blais]

Peter Drake wrote:
> 
> Is anyone else using Python procedurally in an intro course, or is what 
> I'm doing here perverse?

What you are doing is definitely not perverse, and I strongly disagree with Kirby on 
this one, *for the audience you are dealing with*.   I've taught programming for a 
number of years, both OO and procedural, and I find that if someone has math phobia, 
*and* you only have a limited time (like a semester), then OO is way more powerful 
than you need to get into, and is thus unduly confusing for the students.  For those 
who have had a little programming, OO can make some things very nice.

Therefore, I do most of my python teaching procedurally, and leave the OO for the 
slightly more advanced students.

Have a look at some of my projects on http://web.bryant.edu/~bblais/projects.html

They include:

    pynqc: a python wrapper to the LEGO Mindstorms NQC language
    Vacuum World: a vacuum world simulator (a.la. Norwig's AI book), which is a nice 
graphical way to introduce programming in Python, simulating a vacuum cleaner


let me know if you use these, or have any questions!


			thanks,

				Brian Blais

-- 
-----------------

              bblais at bryant.edu
              http://web.bryant.edu/~bblais