Jython vs Squeak for teaching multimedia

Ned Konz ned at bike-nomad.com
Mon Jun 24 21:11:06 UTC 2002


On Monday 24 June 2002 01:44 pm, Stephane Ducasse wrote:

> I was reading what Mark is writing about using Jython for a CS1 in
> multimedia and
> this can interest some of you.
> http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/mediaComp-plan

I did think it was peculiar that he said that Scheme was good because 
it used parentheses for precedence:

One of the high frequency errors that students make in programming is 
confusing precedence [Spohrer and Soloway, 1986]. In Scheme, this 
problem is reduced through use of parentheses to make precedence 
explicit. 

But this is the case in all of the languages that they'd be likely to 
use, including Squeak. Liberal use of parentheses fixes Squeak 
precedence problems.

Then he says this:

Squeak directly would certainly be a possibility. However, it's syntax 
is quite complicated for rank novices.

and then goes on to show this:

'abc' contains: $a ifTrue: [ ... ]

which is clearly a place where parentheses would help. And since it 
won't compile, it's pretty easy to find the problem (once you've been 
bitten by this, it's easy to spot).

I wonder what there is about Squeak's syntax that makes it more 
complicated than Python's.

And I am a bit puzzled as to why a non-CS person would have a 
particular interest in Java; if you have a good general-purpose 
language (like Python) that you can solve problems in, why bother 
with another? Yet he discusses the idea of people in the class going 
on from Python to Java.

But overall, it sounds like a good plan for a course (at least in 
terms of what's being introduced where), considering the audience. It 
should be interesting to see how the students learn.

-- 
Ned Konz
http://bike-nomad.com
GPG key ID: BEEA7EFE




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