[python-nl] Python at Schools

[Roger Erens]

On Sat, Oct 3, 2009 at 08:31, Perica Zivkovic <perica.zivkovic op gmail.com> wrote:
> don't underestimate our kids, I bet you beer that they can understand hybrid
> of your examples, e.g.:
> for ding in mijn_list:
>     print ding
> full translation is I think bad idea because people (read this as
> small-people :) ) get used to it and don't want to let go

LOL: it's just like big-people who don't want to let go programming
with English keywords, which they're used to.

> so after couple of
> years you have team of dutch, indonesian, bulgarian, russian programmers and
> good luck with explaining them simple piece of code (or even doing code
> review).

Those are very clearly edge cases :-)

You are throwing in requirements for a programming language that are
irrelevant for kids of about 9-10 years old in Dutch schools. I
assumed we wanted to teach them how to program a computer, not to
discuss computer programs with other kids around the world.

> Don't get me wrong using "translated" code is ok for examples in first
> couple of days (I did it also with couple of children groups in Bosnia) but
> after that you MUST switch to the real thing.

Also *me* did not propose that they keep on programming in Dutch for
the rest of their life/career. I'd rather substitute /couple of days/
in your opinion by /couple of months/ or whenever the concepts have
sunk in their minds. Then we can throw in the extra requirements for
programming languages (like: being able to reason about & discuss them
in real-time in an international setting) and make them switch to a
lingua franca.

As a note aside: a small voice in my head is still questioning why for
heaven's sake English would be _the_ language of choice to interact
with a computer. I mean, most computers are built in China, so Chinese
would be a more 'natural fit' :-) And most of us have left the era of
assembly languages behind. <boldly> Python probably isn't here to stay
forever, too</boldly>.

Cheers,

Roger