Comments on: Why MIT switched from Scheme to Python

By: syawLa » SICP – Preparation

syawLa » SICP – Preparation — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:54:15 +0000

[...] Why MIT switched from Scheme to Python [...]

By: Michael Tuchman

Michael Tuchman — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:38:59 +0000

All introductory languages are intuitive at the start and have their nice features. It’s how easily you put the elements together that determines the true sense of a language.

Syntactic sugar is sweet but fattening. I worry about non-issues like how to space things or matching parentheses. That’s my text editor’s job.

I think succumbing to popular fads was a bad idea. I think a great deal of the assignments were made easier because we could start by solving problems without having to spend time on the syntax of the language. That said, Python was probably the best choice, given the regrettable decision to leave Scheme.

By: John Morrison

John Morrison — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:29:54 +0000

We began using Python as a first programming language at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in 2004. Our first course is a course in procedural programming, which uses Python objects as smart data types. Here are some benefits we have seen

1. Python’s grammar is simple. Hello world is

print “Hello, World”

print (“Hello, World”)

in Python 3. The students are not left bewildered by traffic jams of arcane keyworks.

Python’s whitespace delimitation causes beginners to develop good formatting habits that last.

There are not great piles of parentheses to wade through

There are powerful libraries that do hosts of useful stuff.

It supports the functional, imperative and OO paradigms but forces none of them on you. We like it a great deal.

By: SICP Under Attack? | Irreal

SICP Under Attack? | Irreal — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:42:28 +0000

[...] but they, at least, had a reasonable, if not ultimately convincing, rationale for doing so. Sussman explained that software engineering today is all about gluing together huge libraries that hardly anyone [...]

By: In praise of impractical programming | Learn Computer Programming

In praise of impractical programming | Learn Computer Programming — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:01:10 +0000

[...] itself had changed since the ’80s; developers no longer built whole systems from nothing; now they merely plugged together existing libraries to get something that worked. This is true for much of the programming work out there — but I am gloomily reminded of [...]

By: 1-555-CONFIDE - 教育片面觀察

1-555-CONFIDE - 教育片面觀察 — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 04:22:19 +0000

[...] SICP 教學語言是 COBOL ，會教 COBOL 。 [↩]據說 MIT 的 6.001 SICP 已由 Scheme 轉為 Python 。 [↩]順帶一提， UCB 用的 Scheme 是 STK ， MIT 用的是 MIT/GNU Scheme 。 [...]

By: Bianca

Bianca — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:07:37 +0000

What book does M.I.T use to teach python to their first year’s?

By: John Morrison

John Morrison — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 15:47:57 +0000

Python is an excellent teaching language. The interactive prompt is a nice tool for the students to use for experimentation and for me to demonstrate programming constructs in class.

Python teaches good formatting habits. When my students use a free-format language and I tell them to observe good formatting conventions, they are trained to expect good formatting and they just do it.

Python’s syntax is simple. It allows my students to focus on semantics instead of syntax.

Python offers the additional benefit that is it a powerful tool and an excellent general-purpose programming language.

I applaud MIT’s decision. We have been using Python since 2004 at NCSSM. It is interesting to see lots of others climbing aboard.

By: Zasoby dla deweloperów | Wiadomości o technologiach IT

Zasoby dla deweloperów | Wiadomości o technologiach IT — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 19:27:26 +0000

[...] MIT wybrał zamiast Schema język Python – http://www.wisdomandwonder.com.....-to-python [...]

By: Kanishka Ray

Kanishka Ray — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 18:51:22 +0000

Scheme was my first programming language in my Intro to CompSci class at the U. of Chicago in 1993. I was a second year undergrad at the time, and I had 0 experience with programming prior to that, and had learned to use email and Word a few months before. Our text was Abelson and Sussman.

Needless to say…despite being pretty mathematically inclined, it kicked my ass. And the use of Scheme as the learning medium/tool did not help matters.

The class was tough enough, the problem sets grueling and in some cases mind blowingly hard, but Scheme with its’ bare bones interface and joke level debugging did not help matters. I often spent more time being a good code technician than actually trying to solve the core problems being posed (8 queens problem anyone?)