At 11:47 13/09/2006, Arthur wrote: >I can imagine an introductory course that was in fact more a >*reading* course than a writing course - that spent a good deal of >its time analyzing the code of relatively straightforward, but >interesting, working applications. The satellite view, before we >attempt to descend to a finer resolution.
That's a lot like how I learned to program. I bought a book (Professional PHP - nothing like an intro book!) and once I'd read some basics I went in and wrote a proper application - an ecard script, following the outline of Perl code that I'd read previously (without being able to write). That way I learned from someone else (apprenticeship) and wrote something that was *useful* when finished (encouraging me to learn). When studying physics I found the same approach worked, taking a real-world application generated enthusiasm for learning esoteric subjects. If you enjoy learning for the sake of knowledge I guess this approach isn't needed; otherwise I believe it to be the most effective approach. Peter -- Maple Design - quality web design and programming http://www.mapledesign.co.uk _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
