Comments on: Why MIT switched from Scheme to Python

By: Предметы. Часть 1. Introduction to Programming « Even Catfish Can Code

Предметы. Часть 1. Introduction to Programming « Even Catfish Can Code — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:04:49 +0000

[...] основанный на Scheme на 3 курса основанные на Python. Вот почему MIT решили сменить свой курс: Costanza asked Sussman why MIT had switched away [...]

By: Loper OS » You have made your bedrock, now lie in it.

Loper OS » You have made your bedrock, now lie in it. — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:29:08 +0000

[...] Software, on the other hand, routinely ships broken. And software cannot be meaningfully repaired or replaced, only re-designed. Yet witness the cries of righteous outrage among software vendors whenever hardware deviates ever so slightly from its advertised function. What software company could honestly lay claim to even the lowliest silicon pusher’s levels of bug-free operation and architectural soundness? I cannot help but picture a stereotypically slick and unrepentant con artist, frothing with rage after having been duped into purchasing a costly full page ad in what turned out to be a Skeptic society’s periodical. It appears that Microsoft (and now Apple) is entitled to comfortable and stable bedrock abstractions, while you and I are not. [...]

By: Rowan Davies

Rowan Davies — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:52:36 +0000

@Ubu: I disagree about “any language”. The language can get in the way – and I doubt machine code is a good language for this.

A functional language has the most fundamentally rich concepts, and is appropriate at somewhere like MIT.

Python is better than some, but it obscures some fundamental concerns. (And both obscure some fundamental concerns by being dynamically typed – concepts have important static structure in the real world.)

By: Michael Tuchman

Michael Tuchman — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:53:10 +0000

Well, students complained about every other course as well. I’m not sure where you get the idea that only a few people got it. The drop rate would have been a great deal higher were that true. Yet by the time of the eighth lab or so, most people were still in the course and attending lectures and recitations, so I would dispute the claim that \most people didn’t get it\ based on simple survival analysis.

By: Peter Szilagyi

Peter Szilagyi — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:01:04 +0000

I was saddened at first, as a Lisp hacker. But even in “my day”, most students complained about using Scheme the whole time. Only a fraction “got it”.

Anyway, the 6.001 crew will be inspirational in Python. I doubt the students will lose much. The ones that get Lisp will still learn it. Many will be inspired to do so by the course.

It is too bad to not be able to use SICP, as that was a truly great book. But times change.

By: Duajuta Inovasi » Blog Archive » Capstone projects and time management

Duajuta Inovasi » Blog Archive » Capstone projects and time management — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:43:35 +0000

[...] At least they’re replacing Java with Scheme, if only because “that’s what MIT does.” (Too late!) And they are teaching students to think a certain way. And given how much the average CS professor [...]

By: Harold

Harold — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:52:16 +0000

Ubu Walker: I don’t think you understand what MIT is trying to accomplish with its EECS majors or the time constraints in a university course (13 weeks of instruction in a semester for MIT).

In those contexts the choice of a language is very important. If you want to teach some functional programming you’d best not choose something like Java.

You don’t want to spend a lot of time teaching syntax and solving syntax problems, so languages like Scheme and Python are good.

By: Ubu Walker

Ubu Walker — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:54:33 +0000

This debate is silly. It is the “should we offer Latin since it is a dead language” debate. Fact of the matter is that you can learn about programming using any language. It’s the teaching and problem solving that’s important.

By: Capstone projects and time management « ThisGlobe.com

Capstone projects and time management « ThisGlobe.com — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:55:35 +0000

By: Michael Tuchman

Michael Tuchman — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:19:36 +0000

BTW, even when they taught 6.001, there were still courses available in Fortran and C. It is an error to say that C is not taught at MIT. I believe it was part of the Civil Engineering Dept at the time.

I’m not going to look it up. I’m too lazy :-)