1–10 of 80 posts
He's a great teacher (from what I hear, and my conversations with him), though the current plan is to use VB.net, while me and a few others would much prefer Python. Key requirements/comparison points for him are that it should be easy to learn (17 year olds new to programming), and for me, I'd like to learn it as with LPTHW we can go along ahead of the class.
Don't forget - the high school education system is set up so you learn what you have to in order to tick a box and pass your exams, the fact that something might be relevant/useful to your career is an accident.
From that perspective, the teacher probably just wants to teach lowest-common denominator easy programming to tick the box.
I agree with Ryanto - if you want to learn Python (or any other language) it's better to do it in your own time.
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. - Edsger Dijkstra
2. I respect Dijkstra, but I think he was wrong on this
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1885006
:)
However, I think it would be more beneficial if you guys were to learn (sorry) Java and OO knowledge so that you could take the AP test and perhaps save time and money if you decide to move on to college.
Either way, VB.NET would be at the bottom of my list. C# would be great, but the professor might find the C-style coding too overwhelming for the students. And F#, being functional, is probably out of the question for a number of reasons.
Don't underestimate VB.Net. It has a terrible history but most of that ended with VB6. Another bonus is that once you know VB.Net the jump to C# is trivial and now you know 2 in demand languages. You can also compile the same code into a program along side F#, IronRuby and yes, IronPython.
You aren't there to learn syntax, you are there to learn to program. You should absolutely learn Python on your own as well, knowing one will make the other much easier to pick up anyway. Once you've done that go and learn Scheme, or Ruby, or Scala, ir preferably all of the above.