SPLASH 2011: Andrew Black and James Noble - The Grace Programming Language Project
Nov 12, 2011 at 2:03 PMThe video is interesting in that it makes me wonder about what makes a language great for instruction - however, can it be said that pedagogical programming languages are like training wheels for bikes, in that they aren't strictly necessary to learn? Taking the example of "method" (as discussed in the video around 14 minutes in) - if a student is having trouble recognising what a method is, even if an alternative syntax helps them learn, will they just keep on having similar difficulties (i.e. that person just isn't cut-out for CS)?
I would like to learn what the duo in the video think of teaching OOP through tooling (e.g. BlueJ / Object Test Bench) as opposed to using a different language.