Programming for pre-calc class POLL

[DrPizza]

I was thinking that later this year I'd spend 2, maybe 3 weeks on programming in my pre-calculus class... Which language would be the best?

Personally, I learned basic in high school, but that was in the 80's.. some of us also taught ourselves assembly. Then, in college, it was a piece of cake to adapt to 2 or 3 semesters of Pascal, plus a useless semester of Fortran (engineering requirement), and another semester called "programming languages" in which I had to learn Ada, C (C+?), Fortran, Lisp (I hated lisp and xlisp), and one or two others that I'm not thinking of at the moment.

Anyway... on to the poll.

 

[Toastedlightly]

Hmm.. I am in precalc.. I vote C++ (i learned it, easiest for me)

 

[eigen]

C++. Though I would recommend going over fundamental structures/algorithms. (for loops if/else....

 

[mugs]

Since these are people who most likely will not go into computer science, I vote VB as it is the easiest to understand for non computer-oriented folks.

Either that or whatever the call the language TI calculators use. (TI-Basic)

 

[DrPizza]

Personally, I was leaning toward basic... the syntax seems like it was easier to remember - less "pickiness" but, I think I'm biased because I learned it first. That's why I'm having a poll.
I used to love programming basic on the old Apple II computers when I was a kid... granted, it was pathetically slow....

 

[nycxandy]

VB.

 

[cyberian008]

VB is easy to pick up.. and can be used to make very GUI and graphically better programs than like C++ and others...

i took it as a 2week summer course and got a hang really fast

 

[ActuaryTm]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Personally, I was leaning toward basic... the syntax seems like it was easier to remember - less "pickiness" but, I think I'm biased because I learned it first. That's why I'm having a poll.
I used to love programming basic on the old Apple II computers when I was a kid... granted, it was pathetically slow....

If leaning toward Basic, why not Fortran?

My personal choice would be VB or C++, greatly dependent on what is attempting to be accomplished through the programming assignments. Might be more helpful if you list your objectives for this period of the class.

 

[GhettoFob]

Java

 

[oboeguy]

Maple would be way more useful in a pre-calc class. I've taught pre-calc with it, btw.

Edit: But I voted VB from the choices available. It's a joke to learn.

 

[TuxDave]

I dunno how far you want to go into programming, but Basic seems best because there's no need for headers of variable declaration etc.... but I think it didn't support recursion.

 

[clamum]

Basic or Visual Basic.

 

[Cattlegod]

Straight basic.

 

[AFB]

Java. If you can fvck up in Java and get away with it, let me know, cause I haven't been able to yet .

 

[dighn]

i would recommend an interpreted language. you'd only have to deal with basic concepts like looping and what not, and interpreted language is a lot less hassle to play around with for those things

so maybe pascal

 

[AFB]

Actually, I take that back. The fastest language I learned was PHP.

 

[talyn00]

I vote for Java. You can also try C#, I find its pretty similiar to Java and C++

 

[cmdrmoocow]

Since you're teaching a pre-calculus class (as I read it, anyway), and only spending 2-3 weeks on programming, the best and most benificial would be to teach them the basic that runs on TI Calculators - specifically, the TI-83+ and the newer 84s.

You can teach them during the beginning of the class, then show them how to use what they know to solve various problems, like limits, intersections, etc. Not only does it keep teaching them programming, but shows them uses for it and they will have a better understanding of pre-calc. In fact, thats what I did for all of high school... it helped me get all the way to a 5 on the AP Calc BC test. If you'd like some examples to show/give/teach them that you can put a name to where they came from, I can send you the ones that I've written.

At the moment, I'm a freshman in college.... at least as long as these hurricanes don't wipe it off the map.

 

[fs5]

basic is the easiest to understand but the least useful
the easiest language to learn is...... python. Plus Google uses it

 

[Jumpem]

Originally posted by: talyn00
I vote for Java. You can also try C#, I find its pretty similiar to Java and C++

I agreee with these two. They won't let new students shoot themselves in the foot like C/C++ will.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: amdfanboy
Java. If you can fvck up in Java and get away with it, let me know, cause I haven't been able to yet .

You expect him to teach OOP to people who've never programmed before in 2 or 3 weeks?

 

[pac1085]

C# was the easiest to learn for me
(and if you dont use windows, use it with mono)

 

[Peetoeng]

Why bother reinvent the wheel, use Matlab!

 

[Chaotic42]

C

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: GhettoFob
Java