CP4E was Re: Deitel and Deitel Book...

[Geoff Gerrietts]

Quoting Jeff Hinrichs (jlh at cox.net):
> 
> Would you be interested in pursuing this further?

I think we should. I like the idea of starting with an interaction.
Your observation that interactivity interests new users is dead on; I
can remember being in exactly that same boat.

We might set out from Hello, World with the idea of making Hello,
Name. Develop Echo as a "here's the source, let's talk about it" then
follow it up with "now see if you can make "hello, name" work, based
on the original Hello World. No real new challenges there, but
learning to output a constant string and a variable on the same line
might be interesting for the student, and if they don't get it, tell
them a few ways to solve that problem "on the next page".

Do we want to take them through a few steps on how to pretty up the
output? Probably not, huh?

Then we move to the traditional Number Guess game. Discuss if, suggest
the need for else.

I'm trying to get granular here, trying to build in both the need for
the student to engage and think about the topic at hand while
maintaining interest and a real sense of progress.

When do we start immersing them with "useful examples" they should
try? After we get through if / else?

Am I trying to get too low-level? Do we want to stay above the clouds,
keep this as a heuristic for teaching rather than a specific
curriculum?

-- 
Geoff Gerrietts        <geoff at gerrietts dot net>
"Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments 
when he was merely stupid."        --Heinrich Heine