Ask HN: What's your view about learning how to program on paper?

Post by ericHosick » Sat, Oct 01, 2011, 5:13 AM UTC

jeira wrote: post #10

ericHosick wrote: post #7

I've lectured for a few years. Classes like intro to IT, Software Engineering Fundamentals and a few other similar classes. I think Programming Fundamentals should focus on teaching students how to visual systems (stuff) in the real world and how to make that stuff work in a computer. Basically, the job of a programmer is to take some manual process we do in the real world and automate it in a computer. But the way t…

Thanks Eric, really appreciated for your offer. I don't know how you generally approach this but I've updated my HN account with my email. I will continue attending the class and see if it is indeed more abstract and focused on topics like logic and visual stuff. I'll also ask a friend of mine about her experience with the class and the teacher about how the exams are handled. Once again, thank you for your help. Rea…

Post by jeira » Sat, Oct 01, 2011, 8:37 AM UTC

cbs wrote: post #20

jeira wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why only paper? I am not against using paper to do things like doing a diagram so you can understand your algorithm better and its shortcomings, and you're right, knowing how to debug on paper is important, but how do you know you have a bug if you can't test the code in a computer? Our practice classes don't have computers on the classroom. This is not to say you can't do that at home, of course)

>how do you know you have a bug if you can't test the code in a computer? Exactly. The idea with paper is that you need to get to the point where you go knowing what you're doing. If, like you said in the OP this is just for quizzes/tests, paper is a good way for a professor to see what you know when you sat down for a test, not what you were able to massage into compiling during the exam period. In 4 years of colleg…