I'm a long time lurker, first time poster (to this list). First off,
congratulations to Vern for finding a way to get students interested in
programming. If Python works for you and the students - all the power to
you. I'm sure they won't be damaged by process.
As a recovering language snob I've learned to accept that there are no
good or bad languages. Just appropriate and inappropriate for a given
task in a given environment. Most of my day is now spent managing people,
budgets, and projects, but I still get in 5-10 hours a month programming
with a 50/50 split between a COBOL/DLI/Mainframe environment and an
SQL/C#/VB.Net environment. Toss in flashbacks to past production work in
Pascal, C/C++, Delphi (OO Pascal), Fortran, and assembler and I screw up
statement terminators and block indicators the first few minutes of work
every time.
What I've seen of Python I can't see any issues using it as a starting
language. Any good programming curriculum will eventually get around to
the strengths and weaknesses of strongly typed vs loosely typed languages.
Same for procedural vs object oriented coding.
When hiring, I'll hire a 'language specialist' if needed but I prefer
breadth of experience, both computer and business, when I have a choice.
And I still bust out AWK every few years to solve a problem even though it
takes ten times as long for me to remember and get the syntax correct as
it does to write the program. Now AWK would be an inappropriate choice
for a first language.
Joe Kokosa
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