[Tutor] little pythons

[Evgeny Roubinchtein]

On Sat, 11 Sep 1999, frank wrote:

>my twelve year old grandson has decided to learn python...i've heard that guido
>has proposed a program for educating younger programmers, but have not located
>any instructional materials specifically designed for younger folk...if any
>here have info on any such materials, i'd send you a thanking in return for
>such info...

What you are probably thinking of is at:

http://www.python.org/doc/essays/cp4e.html

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to give any instructions suitable for
a 12-year old.  I know that Seymor Papert of MIT was very enthusiastic
about teaching LOGO to children.  He desribes his experiences in a book
called "Mindstorms", and also in an memo AIM-249 available from the MIT
ftp server.   There is an annotated bibliography of many of the memos at:

http://www.neurop2.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/MIT_lit.html

(and links to download them).  Pyhon does have a turtle module, so dear to
the hearts of LOGO-minded people, so it is certainly possible to start
python, and then do something like 

>>> import turtle
>>> joe = turtle.Pen()
>>> lisa = turtle.Pen()
>>> joe.down()
>>> joe.forward(50)
>>> lisa.right()
# ... 
# then maybe 
>>> def square(turtle, side):
...     turtle.forward(side)
...     turtle.right(90)
...     turtle.forward(side)
...     turtle.right(90)
...     turtle.forward(side)
...     turtle.right(90)
...     turtle.forward(side)
>>> square(lisa, 30)
>>> square(joe, 20)
# etc...

You may want to look at the LOGO books in your local library, and follow
along in Python -- I can't think of it now, but I believe there was a LOGO
book by a Brian Harvey, who later wrote "Simply Scheme"... That book was
supposed to be good.  There was another book that introduced "little
people" as a way to think of procedures and recursion -- what was it?

These are all the bright ideas I can come up with, I hope this helps.

--
Evgeny Roubinchtein, eroubinc@u.washington.edu
...................
BDC: Break Down and Cry