[Edu-sig] Graphical Programming and OOP

[Jeffrey Elkner]

Couldn't help but add my 2 cents on this GUI and OOP topic:

1. I use a procedural oriented approach first in my classes, and my
students don't see classes and objects until the second half of the
year.

2. Using the livewires module, students write simple games and do GUI
programming *without* any knowledge of OOP.

(the originial livewires module can be found at:
http://www.livewires.org.uk/python/ or a slightly modified version I've
put up is at: http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/pyBiblio/livewires/)

3. I introduce OOP by having them create simple but useful classes using
only the command line.

4. Only after they have written several classes do we go back to using
our new programming paradigm for writing anything involving a GUI.

Most students leave this experience with a fairly clear understanding of
what a GUI is and what OOP is, and I don't think any of them confuse the
two.

-- 
Jeffrey Elkner <jeff at elkner.net>
Open Book Project <http://ibiblio.org/obp>