Reaction for: OO Programming, by Saul
This paper sounded starngely familiar to a certain experience that I have
had. Therefore, commenting on it is very difficult because it is the
methodology that was indoctrinated to me. I agree with Andy & co that it
is essential to teach students the right way from the beginning. I think
that OOP is easier to catch onto because of the way it models real life
things.
Much of the work is done at a higher level then most introductory courses.
This allows more important concepts like polymorphism and design decisions
to come about. However, it does take away some of the nuts and bolts of
programming. I find it difficult to react to this paper because it is so
close to my own experience, and doing so would be admitting my own
programming shortcomings. I am not sure what it has limited but I know
that there ar ecertain aspects that I am uncomfortable with. The use of
environments is condusive to programs, but it does not indoctrinate the
command line or any other essentials of later programming.
Reactions
Adam
Perhaps a sort of middle ground could be reached by allowing those who are
interested in the buts and bolts to explore and implement them in the form
of an advanced section, discussing issues like threads and the standard
java libraries, or a purley extra credit assignment which would put some
of the advanced topics to use.