[Edu-sig] Editors/IDEs for teaching

[Nicholas H.Tollervey]

On 03/07/18 16:04, Andre Roberge wrote:
> 
> ​ I do agree with what you write ... but, at the same time, I've been 
> struggling to define appropriate categories. Some software can be 
> designed for use by (young) adult beginners but not for young children. 
> (For example: anything that will rely heavily on word menus ... say, 
> like Microsoft Word.) I'm using the term hobbyists for this category. 
> Other software can be designed to be used by young children.  I did not 
> see Mu being designed to be used in a CS 101 type of course.  Perhaps I 
> am wrong and should simply think of the target audience as "everyone" 
> like I did for IDLE.... ?

Got it in one! :-)

Mu is for *anyone* who is a beginner programmer, no matter their age or 
background.

Mu is a *very small* code base (currently around 3.5kloc). However, the 
installers for Windows and OSX weigh in at around 100mb. Why? Because Mu 
bundles Python 3, Qt, Tkinter, Matplotlib, Numpy, Jupyter, PyGame, 
PyGameZero and a host of other things commonly used by those starting 
computing classes.

Why include all this stuff? Because (and I remember this from my 
university days) just being able to set up a dev environment on your own 
computer is a royal pain in the arse -- especially if you're a newbie. 
;-) If the answer is "just install Mu, 'cos it's easy" then beginner 
data scientists immediately have a "first steps" IDE they can use to 
skill-up before they go figure out how to "pip install jupyter" and 
point their browser to the right place. ;-)

Does this make sense?

N.