If you haven't seen Teagueduino yet, it's worth a look as a system that does a good job of making the invisible visible, especially parts of the programming interface that show you the signals/voltages in the chip being set high or low when things run. The two pictures of the editor in the article below show some of this.
http://www.open-electronics.org/teagueduino-making-things-really-simple/ On Jan 29, 2012, at 8:55 AM, Alan Kay wrote: > Hi Tabitha > > I don't think the premise of this system is for Python programming to be > "discovered" while doing it, and I didn't see any claims for this. > > It simple "makes the invisible more visible" when manipulating computer > entities and invoking processes that are usually shrouded at best. > > Systems like Etoys and Scratch need this particular visualization less > because they have mostly visible objects that are being given behaviors (and > which also in Etoys' case have visible data structures -- e.g. "Holders" etc > -- as well). The programmers can see the changes in the already visible > objects. (That is partly the point in how they are designed for beginners.) > > But these systems use a lot of parallel invocations, so one could imagine a > facility like Bob Balzer's EXDAMS (in the 60s!) that captured all of the > behavior for a stretch and allow it to be played forward and backward > deterministically to help the programmer understand what was going on and the > communications between objects. > > I think the main point here is that it really helps any programmer, and > especially beginners, when the computer can be used to aid both their short > term memories and abilities in visualizing the consequences of their code. > > A system like the Python visualizer is especially useful for low-level > imperative-type data structure munging programming (and Python is often > learned in this way). > > Cheers, > > Alan > From: Tabitha Roder <[email protected]> > To: Steve Thomas <[email protected]> > Cc: iaep <[email protected]> > Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2012 1:29 AM > Subject: Re: [IAEP] Nice tool for learning Python > > On 28 January 2012 17:28, Steve Thomas <[email protected]> wrote: > Just found this: http://people.csail.mit.edu/pgbovine/python/ > > This tool looks like an amazing tool for someone who already understands > programming concepts to teach with but it seems a stretch for someone to > learn on their own with this tool by itself. > The first example code is "aliasing" but doesn't explain what a variable is, > or a function, or a list. It might be possible to discover these concepts > using the simulator but it is probably better explained in words. > Does anyone know of a suitable ebook or tutorial which the simulator could be > used with? Thinking of the cases where there is no one to guide the student. > Thanks > Tabitha > > _______________________________________________ > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > [email protected] > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep > > _______________________________________________ > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > [email protected] > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
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