I think that programming is a bit like algebra in that not everyone agrees on the order in which to do things and there's not necessarily a right way - I tend to start nesting (built-in) functions early on, but leave functions until there's a clear benefit to using them. - ThreadSky

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advanced-ict.info • 55 days ago

I think that programming is a bit like algebra in that not everyone agrees on the order in which to do things and there's not necessarily a right way - I tend to start nesting (built-in) functions early on, but leave functions until there's a clear benefit to using them.

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advanced-ict.info•55 days ago

Again, using the algebra analogy, do you show students the reversing method for solving linear equations because it works for most Foundation GCSE questions, or do you go straight in with balancing because it's more flexible and makes things easier later?

advanced-ict.info•55 days ago

I'm also interested in the idea of algorithm complexity vs. syntactic complexity. For example, adding an 's' for plurals: "if the number is one then don't add an 's' else add an 's'" seems slightly unnatural and creates a messy program but is easier to code than "add the right number of 's'es".

advanced-ict.info•55 days ago

Also, sometimes students seem to be better at grasping abstract concepts, e.g. I do solving equations before forming equations because students seem to find it more difficult to form an expression from a concrete situation than to solve something in the general sense.

mracolley.bsky.social•55 days ago

Not used that one, but do use the a/an article depending on first letter of word. Nice little challenge around string slicing and selection with a good 'if word[0].lower() in [a,e,i,o,u]' shortcut

advanced-ict.info•55 days ago

That's a similar idea - you don't need the "if" if you use...
"a" + "n"*(word[0].lower() in "aeiou")
...so the program is simpler, but the code might be slightly more dense.

mracolley.bsky.social•55 days ago

But to get to that level of efficiency requires significant mastery of several concepts and techniques. Hence 'one thing per line' at first.

mracolley.bsky.social•55 days ago

I like them to see how the concept of decomposition is implemented.

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