Hi Linda;
As Huw noted, it does depend on what you are trying to teach with the programming language. Martin Carlisle at the US Air Force Academy put together an environment called RAPTOR (http://raptor.martincarlisle.com/) a few years ago. It requires Windows and .NET but it is a powerful and yet friendly programming environment. Most of the Air Force Academy students are not CS majors but they are all required to take a rigorous programming class, and RAPTOR was invented for this. I have seen a respectable PAC-MAN program, music and all, run on this, and I myself use it for a friendly University-level introduction in parallel with foundational discrete structures activities ("Crossing the River with Dogs"). I would also note that I have taught High School, grades 9 - 12, and I think this would work fine for them. You can measure out how far you take them with it (although the hardest thing is holding them back once they get started). That might be a solution if "normal" languages - and their compilers and error messages - are not your friends :). Best, Michael Michael Leverington, Lecturer Dept of Computer Science & Engineering University of Nevada, Reno <http://www.cse.unr.edu/~michael> www.cse.unr.edu/~michael - 775-784-1414 "There they go and I must hasten to catch up with them for I am their leader" Anonymous On 6 April 2016 at 00:18, Linda McIver <linda.mci...@gmail.com> wrote: Hello PPIGers, I am trying to design a data science course for year 10 students that will be taught to, and in some cases *by* beginners. We'll be using Python both for its data science credentials and its user friendliness, but the error messages are a big barrier to success. Students hit one incomprehensible error message and run screaming in the opposite direction. I recall some research on error messages and their user friendliness, but I still can't find any interpreters with beginner friendly error messages, which surprises me. Am I missing something? Is there a treasure trove somewhere? If not, is there at least some solid research on which we could base the design of a beginner friendly Python interpreter? Any and all clues gratefully received. Linda -- Exploring Life, Parenting and Social Justice: http://lindamciver.wordpress.com/ Computational Science Education: http://computeitsimple.wordpress.com/ Dr Linda McIver Teacher & Freelance Writer -- Buy Fair Trade - Change the world one coffee at a time -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PPIG Discuss" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ppig-discuss+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to ppig-discuss@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
