Re: [Edu-sig] Explaining Classes and Objects

2005-06-13 Thread Laura Creighton
In a message of Sun, 12 Jun 2005 22:08:50 PDT, Kirby Urner writes: OO really is a different world. I think it still makes sense to teach the subject historically, even though we *can* start with objects at the same time. In other words, have students relive some of the trauma of moving from the

Re: [Edu-sig] Teaching programming to physics students

2005-06-13 Thread Peter Bowyer
At 20:24 11/06/2005, André Roberge wrote: My first suggestion would be to go through the edu-sig archives. :-) Heh, I've been trying but haven't found the search tool too helpful, with few results for 'physics'. Is there an official searchable archive (aka something with a good search index)?

Re: [Edu-sig] Teaching programming to physics students

2005-06-13 Thread Arnd Baecker
Hi, we have been running a computational physics course, for the third time by now. All the material given to the students can be found at http://www.comp-phys.tu-dresden.de/cp2005/ However, it is all in German. But still you might get an idea... Best, Arnd

Re: [Edu-sig] Explaining Classes and Objects

2005-06-13 Thread Kirby Urner
In a message of Sun, 12 Jun 2005 22:08:50 PDT, Kirby Urner writes: OO really is a different world. I think it still makes sense to teach the subject historically, even though we *can* start with objects at the same time. In other words, have students relive some of the trauma of moving

Re: [Edu-sig] Explaining Classes and Objects

2005-06-13 Thread Scott David Daniels
Kirby Urner wrote: Based on my working with Bernie, I think it's helpful to start early with the class/object distinction rectobj = Rectangle(...) rectobj.setWidth(10) rectobj.draw() A useful note here: all programmers are _used_ to using objects: The file for I/O is an OS-defined

Re: [Edu-sig] Explaining Classes and Objects

2005-06-13 Thread Kirby Urner
Classes are not a feasible choice to start with because they are a most complex structure in a programming language that builds on knowledge of virtually anything else. We agree on a lot of points. Because just about any decent Python script makes use of core data structures, such as the

Re: [Edu-sig] Explaining Classes and Objects

2005-06-13 Thread Kirby Urner
You might try: These names don't just exist in some primordial soup. There has to be a place they get stored. There is a bit of magic: import __main__ a = 24 print a, __main__.a __main__.a = 365 print a, __main__.a And even: print a, __main__.a,

Re: [Edu-sig] Explaining Classes and Objects

2005-06-13 Thread Dan Crosta
whoops, sent this reply off-list by accident (apologies to Scott) Here's a thought that just jumped into my mind, I don't know if it has any value, but bear me out: I think it probably makes most sense to introduce programming to totally new people in a procedural/structured/whatever you

Re: [Edu-sig] Explaining Classes and Objects

2005-06-13 Thread Chuck Allison
Hello Scott, Monday, June 13, 2005, 10:16:12 AM, you wrote: SDD Kirby Urner wrote: Based on my working with Bernie, I think it's helpful to start early with the class/object distinction rectobj = Rectangle(...) rectobj.setWidth(10) rectobj.draw() SDD A useful note here: all