John, while I think that a lot of value will be derived from this (the environment is very cool!), your blog included the following:
"When I look back at how I became interested in programming, or ask other programmers about how they started to program, the answer is very frequently: “I was given a [Basic/QBasic/Python] compiler and a bunch of programs and I wanted to understand how it all worked so I could write my own!” It was only after digging in to the code that the student wanted to understand how to tackle certain programmatic challenges – but they then did so with great gusto!"
Which sounds great, but speaks directly to what cantankerous mentioned: this is more about computer programming than it is about hard Computer Science. Programming is just a subset of CS, and I've personally known several CS researchers who haven't touched code in years. This topic has been beaten to death, but this approach is conflating the tool (programming) with the study (CS). I realize that there's much more to come, but the introductory material that I've viewed thus far does nothing to dissuade me of this fact.
Again: I think that this is a laudable effort, and hopefully will encourage many more youngsters to get into programming. I was just hoping to see material more along the lines of computer numerical methods, computer architecture, data structures and so forth, that would be a true introduction to the wider world of what CS is.
"When I look back at how I became interested in programming, or ask other programmers about how they started to program, the answer is very frequently: “I was given a [Basic/QBasic/Python] compiler and a bunch of programs and I wanted to understand how it all worked so I could write my own!” It was only after digging in to the code that the student wanted to understand how to tackle certain programmatic challenges – but they then did so with great gusto!"
Which sounds great, but speaks directly to what cantankerous mentioned: this is more about computer programming than it is about hard Computer Science. Programming is just a subset of CS, and I've personally known several CS researchers who haven't touched code in years. This topic has been beaten to death, but this approach is conflating the tool (programming) with the study (CS). I realize that there's much more to come, but the introductory material that I've viewed thus far does nothing to dissuade me of this fact.
Again: I think that this is a laudable effort, and hopefully will encourage many more youngsters to get into programming. I was just hoping to see material more along the lines of computer numerical methods, computer architecture, data structures and so forth, that would be a true introduction to the wider world of what CS is.