Python for non-programmers

[Chui Tey]

Adding my two cents worth...

I found when teaching my wife bit of programming, that she relates to
objects rather well. I did not teach classes first, but rather how to use
existing classes. Eventually when we have more time, only will I show what
has to happen to define classes. It is the classic toaster story, don't need
to know how it works to enjoy beautiful toast.

What I found interestingly is that computer programmers think in a slightly
different way when iteration is concerned. We often can see which are the
common elements in a program and we only have to set up the starting and
ending conditions before we enter a loop. This is something programmers take
for granted, but it is not necessarily the best way to teach programming to
beginners. This threw my wife off because it is often not until she steps
through the last lines of code that it 'clicks' why we set things up a
certain way.