> > Though I'd say that Scheme is pretty good too, from what I've heard. (I've > never tried it myself.) If I understand correctly, it's much less > commonplace than Python in the industry, but at least it's a high-level > language which encourages good thinking, much more so than C++ or Pascal.
As I see it, the only two real life uses for lisp are: 1) customizing your emacs 2) Abuse <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abuse_(video_game)> > I'm saying that because I try to be careful not to be too dogmatic on > Python. It's my favorite language, but I try not to forget that there are > other great languages too. Right. And this is not a course about any specific language. It just happens to use Python. > I'm happy that TAU is going to teach some Python. Rani, would you consider > talking a bit with your class about open-source, project management, source > code control, using resources like StackOverflow, and stuff like that? I > mean, I understand you're restricted by the official syllabus, but at least > give them a taste of it so the interested ones could explore these things. > And then you can tell them that if they want to go deeper into Python or > open-source, the people in Python-IL will be happy to guide them. (I'd > certainly be.) > One thing of importance: one of the problems with high-level languages, is > that they hide efficiency issues very well - e.g. people start using lists, > dictionaries and such, with little awareness to what goes under the hood - > and as a result don't get the feel for how efficient (or not) some of the > data structures are. > > are you going to tackle this issue in this course? i got a feeling you > won't be using python in the data structures course - and many people may > miss the connection. > It is the very first hands-on course that CS students take, often 1st year, 1st semester. It is not a course about data structures, complexity, algorithms, software design, or even software development. They'll see some of it throughout the degree (and they still won't be great programmers without practice) but the focus of our course is elsewhere.
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