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babeKnuth

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i hit algorithmic home runs metaphorically

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What concept(s) did the students find hardest to grasp? What areas do you think more time should be spent on when teaching it? Thnx in advance.

Ironically, this response is VERY similar to the confusing verbosity of most programming languages. :) In Python, you would just say:

Python

(NOTE: I do appreciate the thoughtful and detailed response. I was mainly illustrating a point for Python as an excellent programming language for novices.)

"One beautiful feature of the language-based approach is that we start with a very familiar model of computation, the evaluation of polynomials over the reals. It’s very familiar for all students, and I think they find it very satisfying precisely because it has a direct computational flavor."

Don't know how true this is at other universities, but this doesn't sound like my experience at all. :)

Oddly enough, I'll be TAing an identical class this summer. Any quick tips or advice? (I'll probably also send you a message later as well). Thanks.

[dead] 15 years ago

fuck yeah. best website i've seen in a while.

i agree with most of what you say, but i think a key is more balance between the two. not purely "real world", and not strictly "academic world". somewhere in between.

well said. i didn't think of that perspective.

my own experience was more along the lines of feeling a disconnect between classwork and how it applied to the real world.

it would also tend to probably attract those profs/instructors that are more "aware" of what's out there. they (typically) tend to be the better instructors as well.

their market share may be laughable, but that still doesn't eliminate the fact that many knowledgeable people prefer either blekko or duckduckgo over google.

it can definitely be viewed as a "calm before the storm". or if you're familiar with gentrification, the "cool cats" are living on this side of town.

I've been using this for the past 4 years. They've got a nice iPad app that includes highlighting, but unfortunately their desktop app can't handle highlighting yet. :(

Their priorities are a bit backward. The desktop app has been surpassed by almost all other competitors mentioned here. Sad. Used to be great.

where? the "command...." entries? those are basically javascript bookmarklets that are typically installed in your bookmarklets bar, but have now been assigned their own command. e.g., just type

:postToPinboard

when you want to bookmark the current page.