[Edu-sig] what is a "variable" in Python?

[kirby urner]

On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 5:23 PM, Carl Karsten <carl at nextdayvideo.com> wrote:

> I think the point of this thread is: how important is this subject?
>
>
I don't know that there's a scale of 1-10 answer.  If / when it comes up,
as a student question, it becomes important, but also instructors need to
explain how a given object may have many names, whereas of we're focused on
"containers" how does that look?



> I have one of many answers: in my 2 hour 500 line intro to python, it gets
> about 60 seconds spent on this 1 line:
>
> """Other languages have variables; technically, Python doesn't. But it has
> something that looks like a var: It has names. So don't call it a var. For
> a good explanation of this see
> http://python.net/~goodger/projects/pycon/2007/idiomatic/handout.html#other-languages-have-variables
> """
>

This is excellent.

I was racking my brains where to find visuals like this, specifically
showing the buckets versus post-its models.

I've added links to my make_links_v2.py and make_links_v3.py @ <guild /> [1]

This thread was useful for our trains at PDX Code Guild at least, as I'm
having philosophical differences with some of my peers regarding the
uber-basics and how best to teach them.

I've been told repeatedly that code school students will start out *not*
knowing what a variable is and my number one most important responsibility,
right from the get go, is to introduce the concept.

Fine.  But what if the curriculum hard-codes that we should see variables
as "containers".

Before I lead a boot camp, Python-centric, I want to make sure I'm not
shackled to a misinforming presentation I'm not comfortable teaching.  It'd
just feel wrong, like I'm lying, to force the "container metaphor".  I
needed ammo.

By now, thanks to these threads today, I feel well armed in my views that
I'm free to avoid said metaphor if I want to.

Here's a screen shot of our faculty Slack feed from a few minutes ago:

https://flic.kr/p/DduBoA

There's enough consensus out there to defend my position.  Yay.

What I want to avoid is another instructor insisting on the "variable as
container" metaphor to a point where I feel I have to do extra work to undo
that picture.

Thanks again for the tools, should that come up.

Kirby

[1]
https://www.dropbox.com/home/PDX%20Code%20Guild/Accelerated%20Programming%20%28fork%29
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