Choosing a programming language as a competitive tool

[Sheila King]

On Fri, 11 May 2001 12:29:59 +0200, Fernando Rodríguez <spamers at must.die> wrote
in comp.lang.python in article <587nftga7dfpal25c8534jvh26757i1o27 at 4ax.com>:

:I guess you'll like this one even more, being a teacher. :-)
:
:http://www.inf-gr.htw-zittau.de/~wagenkn/scheme/Natasha_Chen.html
:
:I was referred to this article after inadvertently starting a flame war about
:what language was better suited for learning computer science and programming
:(I recommended pascal at that time).

Interesting. I teach the AP Computer Science course, myself. I taught it once in
Pascal, a few years ago, and this is my second time teaching it in C++. Matter
of fact, my students just took their AP exam on Tuesday.

I guess I must just have an easy time memorizing, or something. I read this
student's description of how difficult it was to remember the syntax of the
language she was trying to learn (such as Pascal, which seems an easy language
to me), and I just can't relate. However, I've had students who also seemed to
have incredible difficulty with remembering syntax, moreso in the C++ course
than in the Pascal course. But still, there are some for whom the code just
doesn't seem to make sense.

: This is how a discovered Lisp and scheme
:( a lisp dialect).
:
:The book they talk about is a magnificent intro to programming for high school
:level. www.schemers.com
:
:Take a look at it! :-)

Yes, I've heard a lot about Scheme and Lisp over the last year or so. I do
intend to eventually learn those languages. Right now I'm focusing on Python,
for programming, and have a multitude of other things going on, too.

But, I have looked at enough Scheme and Lisp code, to appreciate the simplicity
of the syntax, and how that can be much simpler for new, beginning programmers
to learn.

--
Sheila King
http://www.thinkspot.net/sheila/
http://www.k12groups.org/