[Chicago] python intro for 13 yo -- suggestions?

[Atul Varma]

On 7/11/06, Michael Tobis <mtobis at gmail.com> wrote:
> Well if you have opinions about this be sure to show up on Thursday,
> because this is the sort of thing I'll be talking about. I'm hoping
> more to start up a conversation than to show off.
>
> Specifically: what's the right architecture for an interactive
> teaching tool? Does it involve the browser? Does it involve multiple
> languages? Which ones? (I'd prefer 100% Python if it's practical, but
> maybe it isn't.)

Ok, I wasn't planning on coming because I had plans, but this topic is
way too interesting to miss...

On a side note, I loved Hypercard as well... And find it really
interesting that an old app from 1987 is still considered to be
superior than anything out there today in a lot of ways. (Speaking of
which, did anyone know that Apple didn't stop selling it until March
2004?)

I've tried using PythonCard and found it really confusing.

I also strongly disagree with the comments on Flash--I thought Flash
was a great tool when I first ran into it, and I still like Flash as a
concept, but I've found that Macromedia Flash, as a development tool,
is very complex and frustrating to use.  The software was originally
designed as an animation tool and didn't turn into a true software
development tool until as late as Flash 5, with the introduction of
ActionScript... The fact that the software's interface remained
backwards compatible with older versions of Flash means that there are
*tons* of ways to go about doing any one thing, many of which lead to
dead ends--for instance, the default "button" object is almost
entirely useless for most cases, and you'll almost certainly want to
make a "movie" instead that you manually program to behave like a
button.  It's leaps and bounds more complex than the original
Hypercard.

Personally, I wouldn't consider teaching Flash as a first programming
language/development tool.  If the student was really interested in
it, I'd rather teach them programming first with Python, and then
teach them how to use Flash.

- Atul