Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Teaching Programming - was that Schools Linux Dist stuff

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From: Gary Stainburn To: suse-linux-uk-schools@suse.com Subject: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Teaching Programming - was that Schools Linux Dist stuff Date: 04 February 2002 10:57

Hi all,

I've just spent the last hour readling all the postings that happened over the weekend, and here's my thoughts.

Ditto. also plea: Holy war mode off, please.

1) A lot of Frank said is right - there you go Frank, bet you never

expected

to read that? I am, however, not as emotionally charges as Frank.

2) VB should NOT EVER BE TOUGHT TO ANYONE EVER!!!! (Okay, I get emotional sometimes). Recording Macro's, then editing them is ABSOLUTELY the wrong way to get into learning.

So who in their right mind is EVER going to record a Macro and think that the result is a program?? <grin> I like VB, but it's a pig to teach. I do use it with students (as well as QBasic) - but mainly because they already have BASIC experience. I also use a mixture of other languages. VB used carefully IS excellent for fast results, but it needs to be placed very carefully into context, alongside other languages/development environments.

I like to think that I am young enough to remember my school/college days

the process I went through to learn my profession, while being old enough to be able to look back objectively.

The methods used to teach me, I believe are just as valid today as they were then. Structure, order, logic, and top-down analysis and design are essential if we are to teach proper programming - irrespective of which language we use.

We used to write our programs on coding sheets and walk across the campus to key them into gwbasic on DOS 3.3 8086 PC clones. We made sure the

was correct *before* we even touched keyboard. Now I know that is a

and program little

extreme, but the basic concept is still there.

Sadly (happily) I predate such luxuries - I was at Uni before I even started programming (and that as an ancillary to a science course). I learned (BASIC) on ICL 1900 systems. Most of what I know has been gleaned from working in the industry, and grabbing training courses as I can.

I believe that the teachers who that think that 7 year old kids will get bored not writing a GUI program are not doing these kids any justice. However, at the same time, there is no reason why this same structured teaching could not be used with something like Delphi, Kylix, etc. which

will

give them some eye-candy and help motivate them.

Finish IS part of any project, and the more complex the project, the more you need to ensure consistent look & feel. GUI IDEs are excellent for this, especially with the move toward WIMP systems. This should not obscure the need for good programming underneath.

The User Interface, be it a GUI or a TUI, or even a command line, is a

valid

and diffecult topic to cover, and such tools as Delphi/Kylix, or KDevelop/Glade would be excelent here, but when teaching programming, the

main goal should always be qualitity of code, again, irrespective of language.

Hear, hear.

As for the other topics of this thread, I remain quiet as I do not hold enough information/experience to hold an opinion, but I do hold the fear

that

this country is going to get to the point that we will not have enough real programmers, and get stuck with grown-up 'script kiddies'

(For real, read correctly trained program analysts/designers/coders)

I think that this will be true in many other industries too. -- Gary Stainburn

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