Python in High School

[André]

On Apr 1, 3:09 pm, Bruno Desthuilliers <bruno.
42.desthuilli... at websiteburo.invalid> wrote:
> sprad a écrit :
>
>
>
> > I'm a high school computer teacher, and I'm starting a series of
> > programming courses next year (disguised as "game development" classes
> > to capture more interest). The first year will be a gentle
> > introduction to programming, leading to two more years of advanced
> > topics.
>
> > I was initially thinking about doing the first year in Flash/
> > ActionScript, and the later years in Java. My reasoning is that Flash
> > has the advantage of giving a quick payoff to keep the students
> > interested while I sneak in some OOP concepts through ActionScript.
> > Once they've gotten a decent grounding there, they move on to Java for
> > some more heavy-duty programming.
>
> > I've never used Python, but I keep hearing enough good stuff about it
> > to make me curious.
>
> > So -- would Python be a good fit for these classes?
>
> IMHO, yes, definitively - except that it won't introduce concepts like
> static typing and primitive types, since it's dynamically typed and 100%
> object. OTHO, it'll let you introduce quite a lot of more advanced
> topics (operator overloading, metaclasses, higher-order functions,
> closures, partial application etc) that you're less likely to grasp
> using Java.
>
> > Could it equal
> > Java as the later heavy-duty language?
>
> If you mean "is it possible to use Python to write real-world,
> non-trivial applications", then the answer is obviously yes. Python's
> use range from Q&D admin script to full-blown web application server
> including vector graphic GUI apps, scientific data analysis and plotting
> and game developpment and/or scripting.
>
> > Does it have enough quickly-
> > accessible sparklies to unseat Flash?
>
> Since you plan to lure poor schoolboys in by pretending to teach them
> game programming, you may want to have a look at pygame:
>
> http://www.pygame.org/news.html
>
> > I want to believe. Evangelize away.
>
> "Then I saw Pygame, now I'm a believer".... !-)

There is also pyglet which is quite impressive and easy to use.

André