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Python is now the most popular introductory language at top U.S. universities

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Re: Python is now the most popular introductory language at top U.S. universities

#31

Post by pvnick »

phkahler wrote: post #28
pvnick wrote: post #21

One of the classes offered in my major (biochemistry) is "Python Programming for Biology" which is generally the first exposure that most of my peers get to programming, and I tell anyone who will listen how important that class is. Especially in the sciences, Python has a plethora of scientific libraries and great resources to do just about anything that a non-career coder would need. Except in computational chemist…

What are the ancient libraries used by computational chemists? I hope to get some insight to the field based on the answer to this question ;-)

I'm afraid I don't have an answer for that, sorry! If you're truly interested I can ask the guy when I see him this week.

Re: Python is now the most popular introductory language at top U.S. universities

#32

Post by franparga95 »

Hey there! I've just started learning to code for building web apps (I know about Fortran 90, it doesn't fit very well on the browser haha), and it took me a while to decide. I looked up in an endless number of hacker websites, but at the end I'm sorry for betraying Python lovers... I'm learning ruby on rails..!

I've just started learning, please tell me If it's best to learn python (I'm not looking for an easy language, but for a powerful and versatile one :) Something to develop some ideas I have..

First post on HN!! :D From the center of Spain!

Re: Python is now the most popular introductory language at top U.S. universities

#34

Post by seanmcdirmid »

fjh wrote: post #20
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is your name Bob Harper? :) Functional still isn't that popular, in spite of a few vocal supporters. Even MIT went from scheme to Python for their sicp training.

Many of the better European universities teach FP languages in their introductory courses. Off the top of my head, Oxford and Edinburgh use Haskell and Cambridge teaches Ocaml.

Doesn't Wadler teach at Edinburgh like Harper teaches at CMU? I'm sure many French schools are into OCaml also.

European computer science has traditionally been more theoretical than American computer science, but even in Europe you'll find that a lot of 101 courses teach in Python.

Re: Python is now the most popular introductory language at top U.S. universities

#35

Post by brudgers »

_delirium wrote: post #23
mimighost wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Python is definitely more friendly than those you've mentioned. I think as introductory courses, the number one goal to achieve is to get students interested, rather than throw every possible details at them and intimidate them away.

I've seen Processing used in some intro courses for that reason, because the time-to-interesting-experimentation is fairly low (similar to the goal of Logo in the '80s, which was my own first language, although I think Logo was much better as a programming language). I don't think it's a common first language in intro-CS programs, but there are a number of curricula being built around Processing outside the context o…

Processing is a good candidate because it allows a novice to make something interactive and interesting in very few lines of code. The downside is that they wind up typing things about which they understand nothing...e.g void setup {···}. And it's not like void will really make sense after two weeks. On the other hand, placing the mastery in the executing artifact, not the underlying code, might be a good thing.

Re: Python is now the most popular introductory language at top U.S. universities

#36

Post by givan »

Is sad that students never get to learn something like http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput... they could easily learn any other language after, learning just java or python is practical only to prepare them for a corporate job.

Re: Python is now the most popular introductory language at top U.S. universities

#37

Post by advocaat23 »

Good news! I would like to add that another advantage of Python is its usage for scientific computing (Math, Physics, Biology, ...) so students hopefully choose Python to help solving problems for their math classes e.g. using numpy and co. They can then get easiliy into IPython which is IMHO a very important FOSS project.

At my university I feel that proprietary scientific programs and CAS like Matlab, Maple and Mathematica are still the preferred problem solvers for students in the hard sciences (except CS).

Re: Python is now the most popular introductory language at top U.S. universities

#38

Post by [deleted] »

fjh wrote: post #20
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is your name Bob Harper? :) Functional still isn't that popular, in spite of a few vocal supporters. Even MIT went from scheme to Python for their sicp training.

Many of the better European universities teach FP languages in their introductory courses. Off the top of my head, Oxford and Edinburgh use Haskell and Cambridge teaches Ocaml.

[deleted]

Re: Python is now the most popular introductory language at top U.S. universities

#40

Post by phkahler »

freyrs3 wrote: post #26
fithisux wrote: post #2

a language without types, without extensive research? Then, why not C/D/Pascal. i strongly believe for universities sml/ocaml/haskell or even rust are far better choices. I prefer sml.

Indeed, the discipline of computer science is really the study of computation and the ideas we want to convey from a first language are things like abstraction, recursion, proof by induction, equational reasoning, sequential/parallel time-complexity. It's much easier to address these foundational concepts in a functional setting (Scheme, SML, etc) and then once undergrads know how to formally reason and do proofs abo…

>> the ideas we want to convey from a first language are things like abstraction, recursion, proof by induction, equational reasoning, sequential/parallel time-complexity.

Really? I thought good old imperative programming was the best starting point. Concepts like assignment, branching, looping. IMHO goto is actually useful at that point and structured programming is an abstraction that takes a little while to wrap your head around. Perhaps it's due to the way I learned that I think some things are more basic (no pun intended). Either way I don't think high level abstract concepts like functional programming are even relevant in the real world of software development - abstract stuff is CS, basic stuff is for everyone else who has to take a programming course.

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