[ repost after delivery failure ] From: kirby urner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun, Aug 3, 2008 at 8:20 PM Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] nouns and verbs To: michel paul <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>, Glenn Stockton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2008/8/3 michel paul <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > In secondary math classes we often say "Math is a language", but we really > don't teach it that way. << SNIP >> > This semester, at a high school level, I do intend to teach math as a > 'language', and I'd like to get really clear about these kinds of things. > > Thanks very much for any feedback, > > Michel Paul Hi Michel, If you haven't already, I seriously recommend you check out the J language from Jsoftware.com, a direct descendant of APL's that is (a) self-consciously an "executable math notation" (this was Iverson's shoptalk) and (b) is very deliberately taught in terms of parts of speech, milks that analogy very creatively and intelligently. Verbs, nouns, adverbs... check it out! http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Phrases Also, I did a few web pages on J myself at http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/cp4e.html -- Kenneth Iverson himself helped me with typos in 'Jiving in J', though I still think there's one or two left (my responsibility). I see nothing oxymoronic nor even perverse about recommending J on a Python list, as my position all along has been you need at minimum two widely differently languages, preferably more though, to get a sense of the freedoms one has, when being inventive in this lineage. Python and J would be a dynamite combo I've long considered teaching. Someone should try it, report back. As an intro math course, we're not expecting miracle levels of proficiency with either out the other end, however we already know both communities support a rich and relevant mathematics-related literature, complete with lots free / open source code. See Roger Hui's stuff especially, and our own Tim Peters. Kirby _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
