[Edu-sig] python vs processing for introducing programming?

[Thomas Koch]

Hi,

I'm just becoming a teacher, but I've seen a collegue teaching processing and 
observed a few things that I don't like about it:

- Processing comes with it's own IDE and the files you're writing are embedded 
in the real programming. The pupils don't have any change to get an overview 
of the "program". With a small python script OTOH, there's just the script and 
that's it.

- Adding external (image) files to a processing program has puzzled the pubils 
and me too. You can't just download to your home folder and refer to a file 
with the filesystem path. Processing bundles your project to a java jar and so 
the downloaded files need to be added through the IDE.

- Processing has some very ugly, global state and procedural idioms that I'd 
prefer not to teach to my students, like:
  textFont(letterGothic, 32); // sets the global text style
  text("word", 10, 50); // outputs text

  a more object oriented way would look something like

  style = new TextStyle(WHATEVER);
  style.print(WHATEVER);

- Processing confronts the students with functions from day one, because all 
code must be embedded in one of two functions (setup and draw, IIRC).

Regards,

Thomas Koch, http://www.koch.ro