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Unread 21-09-2007, 09:44
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Re: How important is Linux?

I'm not sure I see the benefits to the students in moving away from what we have now.

It seems to me that what we have now allows students to learn basic programming structure. Variables, arrays, lookup tables, the importance of good clean code, etc. You should see the looks on their faces when they begin to understand why order of operations is so important in integer math. It's a thrill to see.

No offense to the many incredibly talented mentors out there - but everything you are throwing around seems to be more complicated than what we have now.

I have my kids code in notepad for exactly that reason. Having them learning how to code in the most basic environment where they have to worry about syntax, manual spacing, capitalization and spelling teachs them what I consider the most important basic programming skills.

You should see the victory dances when they write their first subroutine in notepad and it works, cleanly, the first time they compile it.

I'm not sure what have an RTOS would really gain for the students in terms of learning, but I can see where it will definitely increase cost.